GORDON BROWN was last night accused of betraying the families of soldiers killed in Iraq after announcing the long-awaited inquiry into the war would be held behind closed doors.

The Prime Minister came under attack from MPs on all sides – as well as from families of North-East troops killed in the conflict – after saying hearings could not be held in public due to national security considerations.

In a Commons statement, Mr Brown said the inquiry, by a committee of privy counsellors led by a former Whitehall mandarin, would not seek to apportion blame and would not report until after the next General Election.

He said closed hearings would ensure evidence given to the inquiry by politicians, military officers, and officials would be as “full and candid as possible”.

However, his arguments were dismissed by opposition parties who warned it would not satisfy public demands to establish the truth of what had happened.

Tory leader David Cameron said it belied the promises given by Mr Brown only a week ago when he spoke of a “new era of democratic renewal”.

“The inquiry needs to be, and needs to be seen to be, truly independent and not an establishment stitch-up,” he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said he had held talks with bereaved relatives of service personnel who had urged him to press for a full public inquiry.

“A secret inquiry conducted by a clutch of grandees handpicked by the Prime Minister is not what Britain needs,” he said.

“The Government must not be allowed to close the book on this war as it opened it – in secrecy.”

Janice Murray, whose son, Michael Tench, from Sunderland, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in January 2007, said the decision was a betrayal and joined the calls for the inquiry to be held in public.

She said: “Myself and lots of families like mine will be asking ‘Why? Why were we there?’ “Why isn’t there a public announcement of why and what for? We have all had the inquests and we are still asking: Why?

“We’ll never get closure or comprehend why, but it would be nice as a mark of respect to the lads to let us know the inside of the issues.

“It’s always behind closed doors.”

John Miller from Washington, Wearside, whose son, Corporal Simon Miller, was killed in an ambush by an Iraqi mob, recalled the day he left to take part in the conflict.

He said: “He said to me ‘Dad, there’s a madman out there, he’s got a WMD and can deploy it in 45 minutes. We’ve got to go out there and stop him’.

“We know now that was a lie. What really hurts me is that my son died not knowing that.”

But John Hyde, whose son Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was killed in the same incident, backed the Prime Minister’s decision to hold the inquiry in private.

He said: “That is something my wife, Sandra, and I disagree on.

“She thinks it should be a public inquiry, something that should be out in the open.

“Personally, I do not think it is going to change anything or make a difference to what has happened.

“I do not really see the point [of having a public inquiry].”

He added: “I have always made clear my feelings about the conflict.

“I felt it was something we had to do.”

More worryingly for Mr Brown after last week’s threatened revolt against his leadership, a series of Labour MPs also rose to criticise the decision to hold the inquiry in secret.

David Hamilton said there needed to be a “day of reckoning” which could only come about through a public inquiry.

“The truth must come out.

At the end of the day the general public need to know the truth,” he said.

Mr Brown said the inquiry – based on the Franks inquiry into the Falklands War – would be of “unprecedented” scope, covering the lead up to the invasion from summer 2001 to the withdrawal of the main body of British troops this year.

Mr Brown said they would start work “as soon as possible” after the end of next month and were expected to take a year to complete their report – putting it after the last possible date for the next election.