Blog： In full: Leaders on Iraq inquiry

Here is the full text of Gordon Brown’s statement to MPs announcing plans for an inquiry into the Iraq war, followed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s responses:
“Mr Speaker, the whole House will want to join me in expressing our condolences to the family and friends of the two soldiers who recently lost their lives serving in Afghanistan: Lieutenant Paul Mervis, of 2nd Battalion the Rifles; and Private Robert McLaren, of 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland – the Black Watch.
Mr Speaker, our troops first went into Iraq in March 2003 – now they are coming home. So it is fitting that I should now come to the House to talk of their achievements through difficult times; to chart the new relationship we are building with Iraq; and to set out our plans for an inquiry into the conflict.
As always, Mr Speaker, we can be supremely proud of the way our forces carried out their mission – their valour in the heat of combat – recognised in the many citations for awards and decorations, and their vigilance and resolution amid the most difficult imaginable conditions and the ever-present risk of attack by an unseen enemy.
And today we continue to mourn and to remember the 179 men and women who gave their lives in the service of our country.
Mr Speaker, in my statement to the House last December, I set out the remaining tasks in Southern Iraq for our mission:
• First to entrench improvements in security by putting Iraqis in charge of their own defence and policing;
• Second to support Iraq’s emerging democracy through the provincial elections