Sir John Chilcot must announce a publication date for the Iraq inquiry within weeks or face Commons censure, MPs said yesterday.
Downing Street dismissed last night suggestions that David Cameron was preparing to change the legal basis for the inquiry to speed its conclusion.
However, MPs said that they would discuss next week how best to exert pressure on the former civil servant before parliament returns two weeks today. One option would involve Sir John being summoned to give evidence to the Commons’ foreign affairs committee, although Crispin Blunt, its chairman, has indicated that he would not support such a move.
Critics such as David Davis could instead force a Commons debate and vote on the delay to the report by the inquiry, set up by Gordon Brown in 2009. A vote would have no legal force, but it would be uncomfortable for the panel.
There is cross-party anger at Sir John’s failure to set a deadline, with Yvette Cooper, the Labour leadership candidate, joining calls for action.
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Sir John has told Mr Cameron that he would not commit to a date until everyone criticised in the vast report had sent in their final responses to drafts.
Last week The Times revealed that army chiefs were being blamed for the hold-up by a source close to the inquiry.
It has emerged that General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the head of the armed forces and Mr Cameron’s most senior military adviser, is to be criticised by the inquiry for his actions. He controversially ordered the withdrawal of troops from southern Iraq despite a growing Iranian-backed insurgency.
Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 until 2004, was also said yesterday to be criticised in the report. He fiercely dismissed any suggestion that he had grown too close to Tony Blair when he provided information for the dossier on Iraq’s battlefield capability, according to The Mail on Sunday.
It is unusual for any serving armed forces chief to be criticised over a role in a major military campaign.
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One of the MPs plotting to increase the pressure said that they were likely to give the inquiry until mid-September to set a date. “I think the feeling is, let’s see if he’s finally going to do it — and then if not, really go hard for a timetable at the very least,” the MP said.