I took Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, to task in the House of Commons last month about the Government's decision to withold from public scrutiny the minutes of the Cabinet's discussion of the decision to invade Iraq. You can read the Hansard record of my intervention below:
Commons Hansard 24 Feb 2009 : Column 165
Mr. Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con): Is not the Secretary of State tilting at false windmills? He knows perfectly well that no sensible person wants to reveal all Cabinet discussions and no sensible person wants to curtail honest discussion in Cabinet, but does he not agree with the commissioner and the tribunal that this is a special case? Surely the people have a legal right to know the legal basis of a war in which up to 600,000 people have died. This whole thing stinks.
We are not trying to curtail discussion. What we accuse the Government of is the absence of any proper discussion of the Attorney-General’s statement and advice. We want to have answers now, and so do the public.
Mr. Straw: That is the hon. Gentleman’s opinion, and it was also—although slightly more carefully put—the opinion of the majority of the tribunal. However, if the hon. Gentleman refers to paragraph 88 of the tribunal’s decision document, he will see that the minority expressed what was essentially the view that I have taken: that
“Exceptional cases may create an exceptional need for confidence in Cabinet confidentiality to be strong.”
Essentially, the hon. Gentleman is arguing that the more important the issue, the less significant should be Cabinet confidentiality. I do not accept that argument.
