I've noticed the fact that there's not been much talk of the Inquiry in the News...

He told the inquiry: "We've got huge experience in this country - we're not using it and we're putting amateurs into really really important positions and people are getting killed as a result of some of these decisions.

Without WMD claims it would have been necessary to "use and deploy different arguments," he told the BBC.

BBC One's Fern Britton Meets programme

The delay is to avoid the occasion "being used for political advantage".

Chilcot was taking evidence from Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff. In his evidence, Powell said that George Bush had failed to live up to some of the commitments he gave in relation to the Middle East peace process, such as holding a peace conference or devoting as much time to the problem as Blair had done to Northern Ireland. Powell said this was a "major disappointment".

Powell denied that an attempt was made to "bully" Goldsmith into authorising the war.

However he told the inquiry that it was made clear that Goldsmith could not simply sit on the fence with a legal opinion that said "on the one hand, on the other".

He told the inquiry he had not known that the 45-minute claim had been given such prominence in the newspapers because he had been in Kiev at the time of the dossier coverage.

"There were certainly complaints about desert combats. Quite a lot of soldiers went into action in green combats and they didn't like it," he said. But he insisted that this had not harmed their ability to fight, even if morale might have been affected.

He accepted that some soldiers had not had the right boots, but added that there "were not widespread problems of boots melting in the sun".

The 45-minute claim was put in late and was a "bit of local colour" the secret service would allow to be used.