Clegg: Brown can no longer hide from full public Iraq inquiry

12.06.00pm GMT Wed 17th Dec 2008

Commenting on the announcement that British troops will leave Iraq next summer Nick Clegg said: "After five long years in which the enormity of our forces’ courage and sacrifice has been matched only by the enormity of the Government’s mistake, it is a huge relief that the end is at last in sight."

“But Gordon Brown cannot be allowed to sidestep the massive part he played in signing the cheques for the biggest foreign policy disaster in half a century.

“There must be a fully independent public inquiry into how this was allowed to happen. The time when Brown has been able to hide behind our troops’ ongoing presence in the country is coming to an end.

“The death and injury of hundreds of British troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in this futile war cannot simply be swept under the carpet.”