PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has blasted the Government after it emerged that an inquiry into the Iraq war will be held in private.

Gordon Brown announced earlier this week that a report will be made public on the conflict but proceedings will be confidential.

It led Labour man Mr Prentice to attack the Prime Minister and the Government during a House of Commons debate, which came a week after party backbenchers granted Mr Brown a stay of execution following a behind-closed-doors meeting.

Mr Prentice said: “I had hoped for a new politics of openness after last week.

“I am not prepared to accept a secret inquiry into Iraq, and I want the Prime Minister to think again.”

Mr Prentice also said the “whole climate of opinion” had changed since the Franks inquiry into the Falklands War was held in private in the 1980s.

Mr Brown said a public inquiry would drag it out. He said: “The alternative would mean an inquiry, lasting years, in which everybody would be represented by a lawyer.”