Nico Hines and Philippe Naughton
17 March 2010
Gordon Brown was today forced into a humiliating retreat in his battle against retired generals who accuse him of giving disingenuous evidence on military funding to the Iraq Inquiry.
The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that he now accepted that his evidence had been wrong. He admitted that defence spending “did not rise in real terms” in every year under the Labour government and said he had written to Sir John Chilcot to clarify his controversial claims.
Throughout his testimony, Mr Brown repeatedly insisted that military spending had increased in every year since 1997 and claimed that every urgent operational request was met immediately.
His claims were greeted by incredulity amongst retired generals including the former Chief of Defence Staff General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank and former defence chief, Admiral Lord Boyce. They accused him of giving deliberately misleading evidence to the inquiry.
During Prime Minister’s Questions today, Mr Brown admitted that his evidence was incorrect in a response to Tony Baldry, the Conservative MP for Banbury.
“Yes. I am already writing to Sir John Chilcot about this issue,” he told MPs “Because of operational fluctuations in the way the money is spent, expenditure has risen in cash terms every year, in real terms it is 12% higher, but I do accept that in one or two years defence expenditure did not rise in real terms.”
David Cameron responded to the admission by congratulating Mr Baldry for extracting an admission from Mr Brown.
"In three years of asking the Prime Minister questions I don't think I've ever heard him making a correction or retraction,” he said. “Perhaps, on the day when he has to admit that he can't get his own figures right we shouldn't have to put up with him talking about Conservative policy."
Former military commanders had accused Mr Brown of misleading the inquiry when he appeared to blame the military for failing to equip the Armed Forces properly.
Admiral Lord Boyce said: “He’s dissembling, he’s being disingenuous. It’s just not the case that the Ministry of Defence was given everything it needed.”
As the bitter row escalated Labour backbenchers appeared to suggest that remarks by retired military officials criticising Mr Brown were motivated by party political affiliations.
Gordon Brown admits evidence at Iraq Inquiry was wrong - Times Online
The Lib Dems' Simon Hughes was also just saying that they've gone back on a pledge over public funding for the nuclear industry.
2 for 1 day at No 10 perhaps.
Trust...