Libya lessons not learnt, say MPs

The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has claimed that the UK government appears not to have learned the lessons from its 2011 Libya intervention.

Following on from its September conclusions that the UK had lacked a coherent strategy and intelligence had not been ‘accurate’, Crispin Blunt, chairman of the committee, voiced his concerns over the ‘troubling’ response from ministers, arguing that similar mistakes could be made again in Iraq.

In its report in September, the committee criticised then Prime Minister David Cameron for being ultimately responsible for failing to develop a coherent Libya strategy, launching an attack based on erroneous assumptions and an incomplete understanding of the evidence.

That report also detailed that ministers should have foreseen that militant extremist groups would attempt to benefit from the rebellion. Blunt now argues that MPs on his committee ‘do not accept that it understood the implications’ of intervening in Libya - mainly the rise and foothold held by Islamist extremist groups after Colonel Gaddafi was overthrown.

Blunt said: “Libya should inform the development of future UK foreign policy. I believe we are about to repeat the failure to have adequate plans and resources for stabilisation in Mosul. Libya should have taught us these lessons.”