BRITAIN: A row erupted at Westminster last night after the Conservative leader, Mr Michael Howard, withdrew his party's support for the Butler Inquiry into the intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD), writes Frank Millar in London
Mr Howard said his argument was with the inquiry chairman and not with the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair. He insisted Lord Butler had chosen to interpret the inquiry's terms of reference in an "unacceptably restrictive fashion".
However, the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, denounced Mr Howard's U-turn, saying he now looked "completely opportunistic and, frankly, ridiculous".
The Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, likewise accused Mr Howard of "shameless opportunism", saying: "Mr Howard called for an independent inquiry into intelligence, he got it - the Butler Inquiry. He welcomed its establishment, helped write its terms of reference and agreed his party's representative on the inquiry, Mr Michael Mates MP.
"Now, within two weeks, Mr Howard seeks to jump on a passing bandwagon, and flirt with those opposed to the war in an attempt to win cheap political points."
There was also further embarrassment for the Tory leader when Mr Mates confirmed that he would continue to serve on the inquiry in a personal capacity.
The Liberal Democrats had announced they would boycott the inquiry when it was announced last month because it would not address the "political" decisions made by Mr Blair in conjunction with President Bush in the run-up to war.
At the time Mr Howard maintained he had secured changes to the wording of the inquiry's terms of reference to permit it to investigate the way in which individuals made use of intelligence material on WMD.
However he said he became concerned after Lord Butler announced the inquiry would focus principally "on structures, systems, and processes" rather than on the actions of individuals.
Mr Howard wrote to Mr Blair yesterday saying this was "unacceptably restrictive", and did not satisfy his agreement to "a full and proper investigation into all aspects of the gathering, evaluation and use by the government of intelligence on Iraqi WMD".
The row eclipsed temporarily the controversy over the Blair government's refusal to publish the full advice it received from the attorney general on the legality of the Iraq war. However the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both agreed yesterday that the government would have to bow to demands that Lord Goldsmith's advice be published.
"I think there is a kind of inexorable quality now about these events, and that one way or another, sooner or later, the whole of the attorney's advice is going to be published," Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, told the BBC.