Clegg: Government and Tories must apologise for Iraq

12.12.00pm GMT Thu 18th Dec 2008

Responding to Gordon Brown’s statement to Parliament on the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, Nick Clegg said: "This was the single worst foreign policy decision for the last 50 years."

It is time the Government and the Conservatives held up their hands and said sorry to the British people for Iraq.

"We have paid a huge cost for our decision to cover George Bush's back: a human cost, the cost to our standing in the world, the cost of increased terrorism, and instability in the Middle East.

"The Prime Minister must commit to a full public inquiry into this whole disaster. The Government must not be allowed to end this war as it began it: in secrecy and misdirection.

"But we don't need an inquiry to know where the blame lies for the invasion of Iraq five and a half years ago. The Government voted for this disastrous war, Gordon Brown signed the cheques and the Tories cheered them on.