LOCAL MP has called for an inquiry into government leaks following the outbreak of conflict in Iran.

South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman, speaking in the House of Commons, said of the fast-moving situation that when Israel and the US launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, that the Prime Minister was failing to take responsibility for the inconsistencies in his position on the conflict, which he says has brought shame and dishonour to the country.

Mr Norman added: “It is now clear that there has been a disastrous failure of political leadership The Prime Minister and the Cabinet knew, or should have known, for a full month that the USA was mustering a vast body of forces to attack Iran, that it could not remain on high readiness indefinitely, and so an attack must surely follow.

“I cannot recall that a political hatchet job of this kind has ever been performed on a commanding officer in the course of a military operation. It is deeply dishonourable and itself a further sign of failure in Number 10.”

Mr Norman went on to blame the cabinet and indicated that the Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Richard Knighton, who was revealed via an anonymous leak in The Spectator, repeated in The Telegraph, for being responsible for a quote by an unnamed, official to the Financial Times.

“Now that they are engaged, our armed forces are discharging their duties with distinction, but the result of this political incompetence has been a fiasco, which brought shame and dishonour on this country,” Mr Norman added.

Mr Norman then asked parliament to support an inquiry into these leaks and briefings? And in due course, as to how this embarrassing fiasco can have been allowed to happen and what can be done to prevent it from ever happening again?