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| Troops' families sent body armour to Iraq during war, says MP | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Members of the public and soldiers’ families resorted to sending equipment – including, in at least one case, body armour – to British troops in Iraq, fearing they were not being supplied with adequate kit, MPs have been told. | Members of the public and soldiers’ families resorted to sending equipment – including, in at least one case, body armour – to British troops in Iraq, fearing they were not being supplied with adequate kit, MPs have been told. |
| “We can’t keep sending forces into places they are not prepared to go into, both in terms of equipment and understanding of the reason,” Jim Shannon, the DUP MP for Strangford, told the Commons on Thursday, during the second day of debate on the Chilcot report. The report had found that British troops were deployed in Iraq with “serious equipment shortfalls when the conflict began”. | |
| Related: MoD left UK forces in Iraq lacking equipment and a plan, Chilcot says | Related: MoD left UK forces in Iraq lacking equipment and a plan, Chilcot says |
| “I wasn’t a member of this house at the time of the Iraq war, but I’ve had constituents come to me who were sending socks and boots and food and bodywarmers, and, on one occasion I’m aware of, body armour to their people in Iraq,” Shannon said. | “I wasn’t a member of this house at the time of the Iraq war, but I’ve had constituents come to me who were sending socks and boots and food and bodywarmers, and, on one occasion I’m aware of, body armour to their people in Iraq,” Shannon said. |
| Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former soldier, criticised the military for failing to stand up for its troops by sending them off to combat without the right equipment. “We as a military betrayed those individuals who lost their lives in this conflict as a direct result of equipment shortages,” he said. | |
| The Plymouth MP, who served in Afghanistan, said: “To speak truth to power is an integral part of the military’s duty to this nation. It is inconceivable to me to allow political administration in this country to hamper preparations for war because it did not politically want to be seen to be doing so. It is inconceivable to me to allow soldiers out on patrol bases into contact with the enemy without body armour, not as a tactical decision or as a result of enemy action against a supplier but simply because of bad planning. | The Plymouth MP, who served in Afghanistan, said: “To speak truth to power is an integral part of the military’s duty to this nation. It is inconceivable to me to allow political administration in this country to hamper preparations for war because it did not politically want to be seen to be doing so. It is inconceivable to me to allow soldiers out on patrol bases into contact with the enemy without body armour, not as a tactical decision or as a result of enemy action against a supplier but simply because of bad planning. |
| “It is inconceivable to me to continue to allow patrolling in Snatch Land Rovers when they were known to provide no protection whatsoever to our men and women against a well-known obvious IED [improvised explosive device] threat. Yet these things happened and they directly cost UK military lives.” | |
| Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, said two of his constituents died as a result of equipment shortages. “We should never, ever again send our armed forces into combat without properly equipping them for the task in hand,” he told MPs. | |
| John Baron, a former army officer who resigned from the Tories’ frontbench team to vote against the invasion, said: “Parliament should have done more to question the evidence that came before it. It is a failure almost at every level. We should have questioned war, we should have examined the detail. I was told to stop asking awkward questions.” | John Baron, a former army officer who resigned from the Tories’ frontbench team to vote against the invasion, said: “Parliament should have done more to question the evidence that came before it. It is a failure almost at every level. We should have questioned war, we should have examined the detail. I was told to stop asking awkward questions.” |
| The Tory MP Sir David Amess said Tony Blair deserved an Oscar for the way he reacted to the publication of the Chilcot report, by saying he would make the same decision again to take the UK to war in Iraq. Amess said Blair should be held to account for the way he “misled” parliament. He said: “I think it would be an insult to the families who have lost loved ones in the conflict if we did nothing. Those families are going to take their own action, I understand all that.” | |
| Labour MP Pat McFadden, an adviser to Blair during the Iraq war, said: “There is an inescapable question. Put bluntly, you can have all the committees and processes that you want but you still have to decide. And your decision can go wrong, and you cannot predict everything that will happen in the aftermath.” | |
| Ulster Unionist MP Danny Kinahan said the British media should ask itself whether it bore some responsibility for pushing the country to war. He said: “The press must examine themselves, they must look at this and see how much of what went wrong in Iraq was due also to their pressure. And at the same time we must look at how we use the press, and how senior members in politics push the press to do what they want.” | Ulster Unionist MP Danny Kinahan said the British media should ask itself whether it bore some responsibility for pushing the country to war. He said: “The press must examine themselves, they must look at this and see how much of what went wrong in Iraq was due also to their pressure. And at the same time we must look at how we use the press, and how senior members in politics push the press to do what they want.” |