Brown admits Iraq inquiry mistake on defence spending
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, March 17, IRNA -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday was forced to admit that he made a mistake about defence spending when he gave evidence to the Iraq inquiry earlier this month.
Brown has insisted that when he was chancellor of the exchequer during the Iraq war he made real increases in the defence budget every year.
But when challenged in parliament, he said that he now accepted that it "did not rise in real terms" in one or two years and was writing to the inquiry chair Sir John Chilcot to correct his evidence.
Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron told MPs that there had been years when there had been "real terms cuts" and was “glad the prime minister has admitted it."
Following his evidence, Browan was also criticised by former heads of the armed forces. Lord Guthrie, who said the Ministry of Defence "received the bare minimum from the chancellor, who wanted to give the military as little as he could get away with".
Criticism has also been voiced by relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan about the troops being sent to the frontline, who were inadequately equipped.
2220**345**1416
End News / IRNA / News Code 1018351
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
