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| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release | Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Justice Secretary Jack Straw has vetoed the publication of minutes of key Cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003. | Justice Secretary Jack Straw has vetoed the publication of minutes of key Cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003. |
| He said he would use a clause in the Freedom of Information Act to block the release of details of meetings in which the war's legality was discussed. | He said he would use a clause in the Freedom of Information Act to block the release of details of meetings in which the war's legality was discussed. |
| Releasing the papers would do "serious damage" to Cabinet government, he said, and outweighed public interest needs. | |
| The Information Tribunal ruled last month that they should be published. | |
| 'Necessary' | |
| They had rejected a government appeal against the Information Commissioner's ruling that the papers be published because decisions taken in the run-up to 2003 invasion of Iraq were "momentous" and controversial. | |
| The government could have appealed against the Information Tribunal's decision in the High Court, but has decided instead to use the ministerial veto for the first time since the Freedom of Information laws came into force. | |
| Mr Straw told MPs that he had not taken the decision to block the minutes "lightly" but that it was "necessary" in the interest of protecting Cabinet government. | |
| "There is a balance to be struck between openness and maintaining aspects of our structure of democratic government." | |
| The Conservatives said the decision was "right" since the release of the minutes would make ministers more reluctant to discuss controversial subjects in future, impeding good government. | |
| However, shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said the way the government had handled the issue betrayed its contempt for the FOI legislation it itself introduced. | |
| He also repeated his call for a full-scale public inquiry into the Iraq war, saying the need for this was now "overwhelming". |