All news on this page courtesy of the The Telegraph Newspaper, London, UK

6 March 1997

A SECOND defence minister apologised yesterday for misleading Parliament over the extent to which pesticides blamed for Gulf War syndrome were used in the conflict.

Earl Howe, the junior Armed Forces Minister, admitted there was now "considerable doubt" over the accuracy of assurances he had earlier given about the deaths from natural causes of some flocks of camels, sheep and goats grazed by Bedouin tribesmen in the war zone. His embarrassing confession in a personal Lords statement came only a week after his boss, Nicholas Soames, the Armed Forces Minister, had fought off calls to resign after being accused of presiding over a Whitehall cover-up.

An internal Defence Ministry inquiry had found that Parliament was repeatedly mislead about the deployment of organo-phosphates in the theatre of Allied operations because of flawed advice given to ministers by civil servants. Earl Howe had originally attributed the deaths of the animals to either starvation, battle casualties or culling when challenged last year about a possible link with pesticides.

Although the ministry denied at the time that any organo-phosphates were used in the Gulf, suspicions had been fuelled by the absence of any flies from the animal carcasses encountered by troops.

Earl Howe cited the opinion of a veterinary officer stationed with the British forces in the Gulf, and insisted this was supported by scientific analysis conducted by the Tropical Veterinary Centre at Edinburgh. However, a ministry spokesman acknowledged yesterday that the latest internal inquiries cast doubt over whether the centre had undertaken any such work.

Labour seized on his admission as further evidence that the Conservatives could not be trusted to look after the interests of Gulf veterans. David Clark, the shadow defence spokesman, pledged a Labour government would re-open the inquiry into the extent of the use of organo-phosphates in the conflict. "At every turn the Government has tried to sweep unpalatable facts about the Gulf War under the carpet," he said. "Ministers are guilty of the utmost negligence and complacency."

The ministry said it was trying to discover what had gone wrong in briefing Earl Howe. But a spokesman said that the inquiry was separate from the investigation instigated by Mr Soames, which could result in disciplinary action against civil servants.

Mr Soames apologised to Parliament in December after admitting that he had inadvertently misled MPs over the extent to which troops were exposed to potentially harmful pesticides. Last week he told the Commons defence select committee he regretted it had taken so long for the department to rectify the mistake.

2 March 1997: See you in court, Gulf veterans are told by Whitehall