British PM agreed to face Iraq inquiry after claims he was running scared

The Prime Minister was told yesterday that he would be called in late February or early March after accepting an offer to give his testimony before the election. There is increasing speculation that March 29 or 30 will be the day Mr Brown requests a dissolution of Parliament for a May 6 poll.

It means he will go to the country with memories of his appearance at the inquiry — and the revived spectre of the war — fresh in voters’ memories. Labour MPs, particularly those in marginal seats, will be dismayed at the timing, though most see it as inevitable given Mr Brown’s decision to accede to an inquiry so late in the Parliament.

The Times has learnt that Mr Brown decided to push for an earlier appearance after he and his strategy team decided that he would continue to be portrayed by his opponents as afraid of being questioned about his role in decisions leading up to and after the war.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has infuriated the Labour leadership with repeated calls on Mr Brown to appear soon, even though the inquiry team under Sir John Chilcot had decided that he and two other ministers, David Miliband and Douglas Alexander, should not appear until after the election because the questioning was to be mainly about their current rather than past roles. Sir John maintained that the inquiry wanted to stay out of party politics.