Families to take action if Chilcot report not published by year end

Chilcot insisted last month that his probe was making “significant progress” but could not give a timetable for publication.

“We can’t get closure, it’s been going on too long now”.

Its report is expected to shed light on how the then Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to support the U.S.-led war in which 179 British service personnel were killed.

Matthew Jury of McCue and Partners solicitors, which is representing the families, told the paper: “Not only did our clients suffer when their loved ones perished but this suffering has been compounded by the fact that they do not know why they were deployed to Iraq and for what, ultimately, they died”.

Chilcot Inquiry: why has the report been delayed yet again?

Chilcot has said that the report is being held up by the Maxwellisation process-a process by which those criticised in the report are given a right to respond, with those facing particular scrutiny including Blair and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

And Reg Keys, who lost his son, Lance-Corporal Thomas Keys, 20, in 2003, said: “We need to move this black cloud of Iraq away and consign it to history but we can not do that until Chilcot reports”.

The campaigner has previously said she fears the report produced by Sir John Chilcot will be a “whitewash” and ” the biggest cover up of our time”. We want to know.

He added: “I think he’s let us down”.

“But he’s had time enough now and he’s not imposing deadlines on this and that’s where our argument is, we want to give a deadline now, by the end of the year or legal action will be following”.

The former Labour MP said: “I have always understood their frustration and obviously my frustration simply as a witness and a major decision-maker are tiny compared to those of the bereaved families”. He said he wanted to “draw a line” under the legacy of the war.

In June, The Independent reported that David Cameron had told Chilcot the families – and the prime minister himself – were “fast losing patience” with the failure to publish.

“The problem here is that the form of the inquiry was too loose and unstructured and lacked the discipline which the appointment of counsel to the inquiry would have brought”.

“The report must be published without further delay, and in the absence of any firm date the families are quite correct to signal they are ready to take this to court”. People need to see the results of the inquiry.