David Cameron has refused to hold a full inquiry into the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, in spite of pressure from US senators to do so. The FT reports that he will hold a review on whether to release some of the documents that led to the decision however.
Meanwhile the BBC is reporting that the Scottish first minister Alex Salmond has defended al-Megrahi’s release and offered to release all the correspondence between Scottish ministers and the UK and US governments leading up to the decision. Salmond was on Radio 4 this morning, however, saying he opposed the wider prisoner transfer agreement signed between the British and Libyan governments.
Cameron has also told the BBC troops may begin to leave Afghanistan as early as next year. Previously the government has only said that troops would be out of frontline duties by 2015.
The FT revealed this morning that military experts are considering a radical restructuring which would involve slashing the number of UK troops by 30,000 and transferring control of the Royal Marines to the army.
Peter Mandelson has launched an extraordinary attack on the Labour leadership candidates, accusing them of shying away from real debate and saying they are making it harder for Labour to win the next general election. The Times had that story, but in The Telegraph, we get entirely the opposite view from a rather fearful Simon Heffer, the right-wing commentator, who thinks Ed Miliband might be prime minister within a year.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey