Lord Boyce at the Iraq war inquiry - live

Rolling coverage as Admiral Lord Boyce, former chief of the defence staff gives evidence to the Chilcot panel for the second time

1.51pm: Lord Boyce is giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry this afternoon. He was chief of the defence staff from 2001 until 2003 and, as head of the armed forces, he is the best person to know whether the military was ready for war.

He gave evidence to the inquiry in December 2009 - you can read my live blog of the hearing here - and he was fairly blunt about ministers not letting him start ordering equipment in good time because they wanted to keep their plans secret. This hearing is due to go on from 2pm until 5pm, and the inquiry may well be asking him for more detail about this, as well as about other aspects of the planning.


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