Duncan Smith seeks recall of Parliament to set up tribunal

The Conservative leader, Iain Duncan Smith, yesterday urged Tony Blair to recall Parliament so that a tribunal could be established to investigate the way the Government handled intelligence on Iraq.

As the Prime Minister announced an independent review by a senior judge into the death of the civil servant Dr David Kelly, Mr Duncan Smith wrote to Mr Blair to demand a full and detailed look at the way the intelligence was treated.

To do so, however, would mean MPs - who went off for their summer break on Thursday, the night Dr Kelly went missing - would have to come back to Westminster.

While welcoming the judge's inquiry, Mr Duncan Smith said it should deal both with the death of Dr Kelly and the related issues of intelligence on Iraq used to make the case for war. He said the issues were "inseparable".

The Tory leader said the tribunal should sit in public wherever possible to meet the "public interest", to compel witnesses on oath and to require full production of documents. He said ministers and civil servants should be instructed to co-operate fully with the inquiry and argued that a report of the initial findings into the circumstances of Dr Kelly's death would not prejudice a wider inquiry into intelligence and the Iraq war.

"It is essential that this tribunal command the full support of the British people and I believe that this can only be achieved by an investigation in line with the terms set out above," Mr Duncan Smith wrote.