MPs to grill Hoon over 45-min claim
Matthew Tempest and agencies
February 5, 2004
MPs will today quiz Geoff Hoon over the 45-minute claim in the government's dossier on Iraqi weapons, as he fights to dampen down a reignited controversy over the importance - and meaning - of the claim in the government's case for war.
Following last night's revelation in the Commons that the prime minister was apparently unaware at the time of the vote for war that the claim referred only to battlefield munitions - and not to missile-launched weapons of mass destruction - the defence secretary this morning embarked upon a series of broadcast interviews to insist the claim had had little public prominence at the time of the dossier.
After his exoneration by the Hutton report last week Mr Hoon is now back in political hot water, with MPs stunned by his revelation last night that although he knew the 45-minute claim referred to chemical or biological munitions sometime after the publication of the dossier in September 2002 and the vote to go to war the following March, Tony Blair apparently did not.
Asked on Sky News who was to "blame" for not informing Mr Blair that the 45-minute point referred only to battlefield weapons, Mr Hoon replied: "I don't believe there is a question of blame."
He added: "As far as I'm concerned, this was not a matter of great public concern at the time.
"The question of what kind of weapons system could deliver weapons of mass destruction was not something of any great debate publicly in September 2002.
Pressed again by the interviewer about whether the matter should have been a concern for Mr Blair, the defence secretary replied: "I think it's very important that we don't use the benefit of hindsight, which is precisely what you're doing, in order to try and explain what might or might not have been happening as long ago as September 2002.
The minister added that the 45-minute claim "wasn't something the prime minister placed any great reliance on".