Bereaved parents expect no answers from Iraq Inquiry

Two families from the North East have told ITV News Tyne Tees they doubt they will get the answers they want when Sir John Chilcot's Iraq War Inquiry report is published on July 6.

Private Michael Tench was Killed by a roadside bomb near Basra in 2007 at the age of 18. His mother, Janice Procter, says she wants to know why he was sent to war in Iraq, but doubts she will.

She said: "I honestly think it's going to be a total cover up again. We've been lied to too many times and if it was going to be the truth and not redacted statements why has it taken so long? Ten million pounds, how much more? At the end of the day I'm not holding out much hope. Everyone wants to know what happened to their child, why were they sent there? And we're still asking the same question, why?

By the time the report is published, the Iraq Inquiry will have taken seven years from beginning to end - longer than the time British troops spent in Iraq. Costing £10.3m the report is a massive 2.6 million words long.

The families want to know about Tony Blair's pre-war meetings with President George W Bush and whether he promised to join the American invasion before having approval.

Corporal Paul Long was killed at a police station near Basra in 2003 after it was overrun by a crowd of around 400 angry locals. His mother, Pat Long, is clear what she wants to hear when the un-redacted report is published.

She said: "That Blair was to blame, that it was an illegal war, that we knew in the first place. I just want him held responsible. It's alright for him to say if he had to go through it again he would, no bother. We're the one's who have got the life sentence, not him."

Watch Kris Jepson's report here: