A TOP civil servant from Lytham is to head the inquiry into the intelligence service and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
Former cabinet secretary, Lord Butler of Brockwell, will lead the six-month investigation -- but has already come under fire for his role in a past inquiry, the 1996 Scott report into the arms to Iraq scandal. Eleven anti-war MPs have already put down a House of Commons motion objecting to Lord Butler's appointment.
"You have to be selective about the facts," the motion quotes Lord Butler as saying to the earlier inquiry: "It was an accurate but incomplete answer. The purpose of it was to give an answer which itself was true. It did not give the full picture.
"It was half an answer."
Lord Butler, formerly Sir Robin Butler, has worked under five prime ministers, from Sir Edward Heath and Harold Wilson, to Margaret Thatcher, for whom he served as principal private secretary, before becoming cabinet secretary and John Major.
Born in Lytham in 1938, Lord Butler won a scholarship to Harrow school, where he was head boy, before studying at Oxford University.
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