Thursday 26th November 2009 | 14:16

Public sceptical of Iraq inquiry independence

In a new PoliticsHome poll, fifty six per cent of voters are sceptical that the conclusions of the Chilcot report will be sufficiently independent. Nevertheless, there is a strong support for an inquiry in principle, with sixty two per cent believing that the government did not act in good faith over the war

As the official inquiry into the Iraq war continues today, a new PoliticsHome poll reveals that a majority of the public does not have confidence that the inquiry will be sufficiently independent. 

Overall, having been shown a list of who was on the committee, fifty six per cent of voters said they were sceptical that it would lead to a sufficiently independent inquiry, compared to thirty eight per cent who believed that it would. 

A quarter of people were ‘very sceptical’. 

Another inquiry is needed

However, there is an overwhelming view that an inquiry is needed, despite the previous Butler and Hutton inquiries which investigated specific aspects of the war. 

Seventy nine per cent of voters think that there are still ‘questions on the war that need to be answered’.

Government 'did not act in good faith'

The poll also confirms that the public hold a negative view of the war.

Sixty five per cent of the public believe that ‘the government did not act in good faith’ over Iraq.

Sixty three per cent believe it was a mistake to invade Iraq, and a further twenty eight per cent, while supporting the invasion, believe that mistakes were made in the conduct of the war. 

The full questions are reproduced below:

'The inquiry committee members are:

Sir John Chilcott, a retired senior civil servant who has sat on and chaired numerous official reviews and inquiries

Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman - a Professor of War Studies at King's College London who was a foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair

Sir Martin Glibert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill

Sir Roderic Lyne, a retired diplomat

Baroness Usha Prashar, a cross bench member of the House of Lords who has headed numerous public and private sector organisations

Are you confident or sceptical that this committee will lead a sufficiently independent review into the Iraq war?'

This morning an inquiry into the Iraq war, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, will look back over the period from July 2001 to July 2009. The general inquiry follows two other inquiries into specific aspects of the war: the Butler inquiry, which assessed the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, and the Hutton inquiry, which investigated the death of David Kelly, a civil servant who leaked information on WMD. This inquiry will assess how the UK entered the Iraq conflict in the first place, how the war was fought and what happened in its aftermath. Do you think that this inquiry into the war is necessary or not?

PoliticsHome interviewed 1,225 UK adults by email between 24-26 November 2009.  Results are weighted by party ID to reflect the UK at large.