Richard Scott
 Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote    (Jurist, Lawyer) | |
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| Born | Richard Rashleigh Folliott Scott 1934-10-02 |
| Alma mater | University of Cape Town, Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Spouse | Rima Elisa Ripoll |
Sir Richard Scott conducted a three-year judicial inquiry into the sale of Arms-to-Iraq during the 1980s. His report was published on 15 February 1996 and singled out two Tory ministers for criticism: Attorney General Sir Nicholas Lyell and Treasury Chief Secretary William Waldegave.
The report concluded government policy towards the export of non-lethal military goods was changed after the 1988 ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war in a way that should have been reported to the Commons.[1]
Reaction
Following the publication of the Scott Inquiry report the then Shadow Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called for implementation of the inquiry's recommendations in full. However, since coming to power in May 1997, Tony Blair's Labour government failed to introduce the changes advised by the Scott report.
- "The current legislation is appallingly outdated ... it allows export controls to be used for any purpose whatever the government desires to use them for" said Lord Scott in 2001.
In November 2001 it was revealed the directors of Matrix Churchill would receive an undisclosed amount of compensation.
Maggie's guilty secret
One of the biggest secrets of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership was that during the 1980s she and her Cabinet authorised a long running and totally illegal operation to supply arms secretly to both Iraq and Iran, in contravention of UN resolutions and British law. Billions of pounds worth of arms were exported illegally. Parliament was lied to and British ministers, officials and businessmen made fortunes from the illicit trade before it was discovered and swiftly closed down. The British cabinet set up a secret sub-committee to oversee the operation, with both the Home Office (MI5) and the FCO (MI6) ordered to support the illegal exports. Michael Heseltine, Geoffrey Howe, Willie Whitelaw, Francis Pym and PM Thatcher all gave the secret project government blessing. During the 1992 Matrix Churchill trial ex-Minister Alan Clark let the cat out of the bag revealing that ‘the interests of the West were best served by Iran and Iraq fighting each other, and the longer the better.’ The whole sordid issue was hushed up by the Scott Inquiry; but to this day the full story of Maggie’s guilty secret has never been told – and probably never will.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ "1996: Arms-to-Iraq report published"
- ↑ "Maggie’s guilty secret" by John Hughes-Wilson
