THE Labour Party accused the British government yesterday of attempting to undermine the Scott report, which investigated the alleged involvement of ministers in the arms to Iraq scandal. Labour claims the Tories are orchestrating a smear campaign against its conclusions.
Although the report will not be officially published until next week, Downing Street yesterday received advance copies.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary Mr Robin Cook, repeated his demand that any minister who is criticised in the report for knowingly misleading parliament over arms to Iraq must immediately resign or be sacked.
Mr Cook also dismissed recent complaints by several former Tory ministers that the inquiry's procedures had been unfair and accused the government of being worried by the "thoroughness" of Sir Richard Scott's investigation.
"It was John Major who set up the inquiry. It was John Major who chose Sir Richard Scott as his judge. It was John Major who wrote the rem it for the inquiry.
"If the Scott report finds that government guilty of changing the guidelines and keeping parliament and the courts in the dark then somebody must accept responsibility. It would be a new scandal if the government was convicted but every minister got off Scott free," he said.
However, two government ministers, whose actions are expected to be criticised by Sir Richard Scott, both confidently stated that they will not be sacked following the publication of the report. Mr William Waldegrave the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, secretly relaxed the government's guidelines on exporting arms to Iraq while he was a Foreign Office minister.
Although Mr Waldegrave told the inquiry that they were never officially implemented because they had not been approved by the then Prime Minister, Lady Thatcher, according to a leaked draft of the report, Sir Richard states he has "no hesitation" in rejecting this explanation.
Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney General who was publicly criticised by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Michael Heseltine, for ordering ministers to sign gagging orders preventing them from giving evidence on the government's policy at the Matrix Churchill trial, refused to comment upon the report's conclusions.
The former Foreign Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, stressed that the government may not accept all of the report's recommendations because ministers felt the inquiry's procedures were unfair."
"I believe there was an element of unfairness. It is borne out by what I feel myself. It is borne out by what others, less able to defend themselves, have told me. That is not a ground necessarily, for the government to reject the report. The government will look very carefully at the substance of the report and the different recommendations and points made and reach its judgment on those," he said.
PA adds:
The House of Commons Speaker, Ms Betty Boothroyd, yesterday warned the government that it should give Labour and other opposition parties access to the Scott Report "some time" before it is unveiled in the house.
Ms Boothroyd's statement follows Labour fury that it would only get its first sight of the 1,800 page report 30 minutes before the president of the Board of Trade, Mr Ian Lang, makes his statement to the Commons next Thursday.
Ms Boothroyd told MPs that Mr Lang had responsibility for distributing embargoed copied of the report but she said that debate was usually better if the opposition had access to documents before debates. A senior government source said later: "Trade President Ian Lang will want to see precisely, what she has said and reflect on it.
"The Prime Minister has said he will want to study the report and make his views known after he has had the opportunity to study it."