Mistakes made in run-up to Iraq war, admits Brown

He also admitted that the publication of a dossier by the Joint Intelligence Committee that exaggerated Iraq’s weapons programme and a second one plagiarised from the Net were mistakes.

In an attempt to end the controversy over the erroneous claim by Blair that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Brown said he had asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell to ensure future intelligence material put in the public domain is properly verified and validated.

The Chancellor, who will take over at No 10 Downing Street on June 27, said he wanted a bigger role for Parliament’s intelligence and security committee and confirmed MPs would have a vote on whether the country should go to war, barring the most exceptional circumstances.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper also disclosed that Brown will announce the creation of a people’s assembly to rewrite the constitutional settlement as part of a blizzard of initiatives to mark his first 100 days in office.

The public will be invited to help write a new Bill of Rights to try to show that Brown as Prime Minister aims to give more “power to the people” and reduce central government control as he did when he handed independence to the Bank of England in 1997, it said.