UK MPs join Corbyn's call for 'Chilcot-style' inquiry into UK role in Gaza
A cross-party group of British MPs has backed former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's recent call for a "Chilcot-style" inquiry into the UK's involvement in Gaza.
In a letter to the prime minister on 4 March, Corbyn - now an independent MP - argued that Britain has "played a highly influential role in Israel's military operations".
He recalled the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, which found that Tony Blair's government had based its decision on "flawed intelligence and assessments".
Corbyn urged a similar inquiry into Britain's complicity with Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 61,000 people.
Now, Labour MPs Richard Burgon, Brian Leishman and Diane Abbott have joined Corbyn's fellow members of the Independent Alliance, independent MP Zarah Sultana, the Scottish National Party's Brendan O'Hara and Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer in backing the demand.
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"Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations, including the sale of weapons, the supply of intelligence and the use of Royal Air Force bases in Cyprus," the group said in a letter to The Guardian on Thursday night.
"Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of democracy. Therefore we are demanding an independent, public inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s military assault in Gaza."
The letter added that the inquiry should "require the full cooperation of ministers involved in decision-making processes since October 2023".
"Many people believe that the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law. These charges will not go away until there is an inquiry with the legal power to establish the truth."
'Officials are bullied into silence'
This comes after former foreign office official Mark Smith said last month that he witnessed "conduct that I believe crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes" among officials.
"Officials are bullied into silence," he reported. "Processes are manipulated to produce politically convenient outcomes. Whistleblowers are stonewalled, isolated and ignored."
In his original letter, Corbyn referred to a January report from the British Palestinian Committee, which detailed the procurement of weapons from the Israeli military industry and the use of British military bases.
The Royal Air Force base Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus is used by the UK, US and Germany to supply Israel with “weapons, personnel, and intelligence”.
The report argues that the UK "is not simply failing in its third-party responsibilities to uphold international law, but is actively complicit in genocidal acts perpetrated against the Palestinian people".
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