'Now is the time for Iraq inquiry,' says Hague

British shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague today insisted “now is the right time” as he sought to step up Conservative pressure on British prime minister Gordon Brown for an inquiry into the Iraq war.

The former Tory leader said unless an inquiry was held now memories would fade and files would go astray – he added that the lessons learned could help in Afghanistan.

“Now is the right time, because five years have passed since the beginning of the war and in fact many of the key decisions will have been made before that, so you are now going back six years or possibly more,” he said on GMTV.

“I think unless we start an inquiry now, the memories will have faded, the files will have gone astray, the emails will have been erased. There does come a point where you do have to get on with it.”

His remarks come as the invasion of Iraq was due to come the microscope yet again today as the Liberal Democrats demand an apology from every MP who backed the decision.

A new website – www.holdthemtoaccount.com – will seek to draw fresh attention to those Labour and Conservative MPs who backed the deployment of troops just over five years ago.

Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey said: “For the Tories to demand an inquiry into the Iraq war is like Ronnie Biggs wanting an inquiry into the Great Train Robbery.”

The prime minister reiterated last week that there would be an inquiry into the conflict, but not yet.

But the Tories have insisted that the time is now right, with British troops in Basra in an overwatch role and before memories have faded.

The Tories will seek to step up the pressure on the prime minister for an inquiry into the conflict during an opposition day debate in the House of Commons.

The Lib Dems have tabled an amendment to today’s Conservative motion, calling for Labour and Tory politicians who backed the invasion to apologise.

They have also produced a poster of Conservative leader David Cameron questioning why he was now demanding an inquiry when 146 of his MPs supported the conflict in 2003.

Mr Davey said: “It is flattering that the Conservatives have come round to our long-held belief that there must be a full inquiry into the war as soon as possible.

“However, it would have greater strength if they admitted the key role they had in letting this disastrous decision be made in the first place.

“If David Cameron and William Hague want any legitimacy in this debate, the first thing they should do is say sorry for the way they propped up the Labour Party as it pushed us into this catastrophic war.”