Gordon Brown at the Chilcot Inquiry

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

15:20 The last session of the hearings have actually been very positive for Brown. They haven’t been questions on the “legality” of the war, or his role in its dubious genesis; but in the economic restructuring and redeveloping of the country. The session is about to end — I think Number 10 will consider it a successful day, all things considered.

15:10 Brown says you have to have an economic settlement so that people in Iraq can take control of their own lives and security. He says while the post-invasion was a difficult period, in retrospect economic reconstruction efforts were the right thing to do.

14:30 Brown says Treasury officials travelled around Iraq, collecting the old currency and delivering the new currency after the invasion. He also says the Treasury had a programme for economic reconstruction, and giving Iraqis an economic stake in their country. He adds the the Iraqi army and police have also been built up.

13:50 Gordon’s been told to slow down when reading directly from his notes – the stenographer can’t keep up!

13:50 There’s a video here of Gordon Brown saying he would not rule out military action on the grounds of cost.

13:50 Brown says every request the military made for resources or equipment was answered. “I don’t believe that any PM would send troops into conflict without the equipment they needed”.

13:50 Paul Waugh thinks Brown is ducking questions, rather than answering them directly.

13:45 The hearings are back after lunch, and are on to issues of funding of the operations. Brown says all costs of military action are met by the Treasury. £9.2bn is the total cost of the war, the bulk from MoD budgets.

12:45 While the hearings break for lunch, Tweetminster has an interesting graph on the number and sentiment of tweets regarding Brown’s appearance.

11:45 Andrew Sparrow at the Guardian is also keeping tabs of the hearings, with a live video streaming.

11:30 Brown gets a little stuck on an interpretative judgement in a French communique.

11:25 Brown says nobody wants to make the decision of whether to go to war, but that he feels it was the right thing to do.

11:25 Brown says it was very important to him that the decision to go to war was put to Parliament, that he favours the constitutional change in which Parliament will always vote on issues of peace and war.

11:00 Left Foot Forward have a post on the new Commons defence select committee report, which criticises MoD waste on procurement and planning practices.

10:55 Brown says he did not feel at any point that he lacked information during the lead-up to war; but that his role was not to interfere in diplomatic negotiations between the PM, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary and ensure they had the funding they needed; and to play full part as a cabinet member in the discussions.

10:50 So far, Gordon Brown is dealing with the questions very calmly – he is in complete control of the history and facts, and is totally unruffled. Perhaps also a guide for how he should express himself during the election TV debates?

10:45 Brown says “we had to prepare” for war in 2002, but at every point “our first priority was to seek diplomatic solutions; until it was exhausted, there was no decision made about war.”

10:45 Brown says it became a test of whether the international community was prepared to deal with threats in a post Cold War world; that if “we cannot agree to do so, it sends the wrong message…to failed states or rogue states”.

10:30 Brown says “we were anxious to avoid war; the cabinet was discussing how we could do more to avoid it.”

10:20 Brown says he told Blair that there should be “no sense that there’s a financial restraint” affecting what the MoD could do. He would not try to rule out any military option on the grounds of cost.

Gordon Brown is giving evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry today. I’ll be updating what’s said as the session unfolds. So far, he’s paid tribute to the servicemen and women who served in Iraq, but said the decision to go to war was “the right decision, for the right reasons”.

I would be surprised if there were any new details or insight at the end of today’s hearings. There’s also less sensationalisation of today’s session than there was for Tony Blair’s appearance, or even Alastair Campbell’s.

It’s interesting, though, that Sir John Chilcot has essentially ruled Brown’s appearance as off limits for electioneering. He opened the hearing saying he is “acutely conscious” that we are in the run-up to a general election, that the inquiry wants to “remain outside party politics” and that it has asked all political parties to respect that.