The UK government is facing calls for the publication of the Chilcot report into the causes of the war in Iraq as a matter of urgency before the general election on 7 May 2015.

Disarmament advocates and politicians – including the Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – have repeatedly made this call, which was last week renewed as a demand at Westminster by the Scottish National Party.

It is now some five years since the Inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot started to take evidence from witnesses involved in the period leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

In May 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron said he hoped the Chilcot Inquiry would by unveiled by the end of the year. But no further news has been forthcoming

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said in his first evidence session to the inquiry that he had "no regrets" about the war, which others have accused of being manufactured and illegal under international law.

Angus Robertson MP, the SNP’s Westminster Leader, commented on 3 December 2015: “It would be inconceivable to go into a General Election year still not knowing the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry. The case for its publication is now made all the more imperative given the Labour party in Scotland is led by a Westminster MP who voted for the Iraq war.

“The illegal invasion of Iraq is a scandal without parallel in modern times, and – more than a decade later – the war and its consequences continue to cast a long shadow. No one can seriously claim that peace and security in Iraq itself, the Middle East region or the world as a whole have been improved as a result of the war.

“The findings of this inquiry have been delayed and blocked disgracefully for five years. The people of Scotland and the UK as a whole deserve to know the truth about how Westminster and Tony Blair’s Government operated in the lead up to this terrible war before they cast their vote next May and we must have full publication before then.

“The invasion is estimated to have cost the lives of up to at least 120,000 innocent civilians – and there were almost 5,000 coalition military fatalities, including almost 200 military deaths among UK forces personnel. The Iraq War cost the MoD more than £8 billion. 

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