NEWPORT West MP Paul Flynn has claimed the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war is a monster of an undertaking with “an almost infinite capacity to be delayed by the guilty”.

It is now six years since Sir John Chilcot was commissioned in 2009 to look into the legitimacy of the Iraq war which began in 2003, toppling Saddam Hussain’s government. Families are still waiting for Sir John to report back.

Mr Flynn MP raised the issue with Sir Jeremy Heywood, head of the UK Civil Service last week, saying: “What we seem to have with Chilcot is a monster of an inquiry with an almost infinite capacity to be delayed by the guilty, including possibly your old boss, so that they can carry on and live their lives prosperously afterwards, and possibly take places in the House of Lords next month.”

He asked Sir Jeremy whether he had any influence over speeding up the inquiry: “As the war drums are beating again, and we are being encouraged to send our troops into a four-sided civil war in Syria, don’t you think that it is a matter of even greater urgency that we know now why Parliament was misled into sending 179 of our British soldiers to their deaths in pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction? 

“I understand that you were working for Tony Blair at that time, between 1999 to 2003, as his personal secretary. Is there any possible influence you can exert to accelerate the publication of the inquiry’s conclusions? Or are you washing your hands of it altogether?”

Sir Jeremy replied: “No, I am not washing my hands of it, but it is an independent inquiry and the timetable is not in my hands.” 

Mr Flynn said we had not yet even started the inquiry into the invasion of Helmand Province which resulted in 450 British deaths, adding: “Unless we as a Parliament can find out why we made these terrible blunders in the past, the House is not going to take decisions to send troops into what might be legitimate new wars.”

Sir Jeremy said: “The bit for which I was responsible was to consider in good faith the declassification request. I have done this as expeditiously as I could, and I have concluded on the side of transparency. We have repeatedly offered the inquiry further resources, but its members say that they don’t need them and they are doing it as fast as they can.

“Everyone shares your frustration about how long this has taken from the Prime Minister downwards. That includes Sir John Chilcot, by the way."

He added that he did not think anyone was deliberately trying to slow down the inquiry but that after it had finished its work, “we need to take a long hard look at why it took so long and what lessons we can learn from that.”