AS foreign secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe first announced the government's guidelines on trade with Iraq in October 1985, and subsequently claimed that it had been "scrupulously" adhered to until President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
However, it is claimed that Mr Waldegrave's office notified his then boss, Sir Geoffrey, in February 1989 that he was "content" to implement a liberal export policy. Sir Geoffrey later admitted to the Scott inquiry that he had adopted "a sort of `government knows best' approach" over the relaxing of the policy.
Now Lord Howe, he has led the "smear campaign" to undermine the Scott report, arguing that the inquiry was unfair and indirectly described Sir Richard as "detective, inquisitor, advocate and judge."