SIR John Chilcot’s inquiry into the Iraq war must “be published as a matter of urgency”, according to the SNP’s defence spokesman at Westminster.

Brendan O’Hara repeated the call yesterday after Lord Falconer, one of Tony Blair’s closest allies in the build-up to the 2003 conflict, said UK forces should not have gone into Iraq.

Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor who shared a flat with Blair in the 1970s, told the BBC: “We didn’t find weapons of mass destruction there and that was the basis by which we went in. So on that basis we weren’t right to go in.”

O’Hara said it was a “stunning revelation”. “Twelve years after the Westminster Government waged the illegal and immoral war on Iraq, Lord Falconer, who is a close ally of Tony Blair, has admitted that the Labour Government – backed by the Tories – were wrong to go to war,” he said.

“Of course, the SNP and many others were saying back then that there were no weapons of mass destruction – and therefore no justification for the war – but the establishment would not listen.”

O’Hara added: “It is now six long years since the inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot started to take evidence from witnesses involved in the period leading up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, at a cost of £10 million.

“The UK Government has a moral and political responsibility for getting to the bottom of this calamitous war and its consequences.

“This inquiry needs to be published in full – and as a matter of urgency.”

Yesterday saw members at the SNP’s National Council, the party’s governing body, pass a motion “calling in the interests of transparency, accountability and democracy for the report to be published without further delay”.

The existence of chemical and biological weapons in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was the main justification for the invasion.

As well as being a Labour Government minister, Edinburgh-born Falconer – who attended Glenalmond College in Perthshire – was a close friend and confidant of Blair.

He told a BBC Scotland documentary on the fall of Labour in Scotland: “I think the Iraq war damaged Labour everywhere, and I think that the Iraq war is perceived to be a mistake ... by Labour, by Tony Blair.

“That damaged Labour right throughout Scotland and England, but I’m not sure that it necessarily damaged Labour more in Scotland than it did in England.”

Asked if he and Blair regarded it as a mistake in retrospect, Falconer said: “What I’m saying is it did do us some damage. I supported the invasion.

“We didn’t find weapons of mass destruction there and that was the basis by which we went in, so on that basis, we weren’t right to go in.”

A report labelled the “dodgy dossier” that was produced in September 2002 said intelligence had established “beyond doubt” that Saddam – Iraq’s leader – had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons and was trying to develop a nuclear arsenal.

It also claimed biological weapons could be deployed in just 45 minutes.

Its claims, and similar allegations made in another document, were called into question when weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were not found in Iraq.

Blair and his spin doctor Alistair Campbell have always denied that they “sexed up” the evidence to justify the invasion.

However, a former head of MI6 has threatened to lift the lid on the dossier’s contents if he disagrees with the Chilcot Inquiry findings.

Sir Richard Dearlove has written a detailed account of events leading up to the war, which he had intended to make available to historians after his death.

The 66-year-old, who offered the intelligence about Saddam’s WMD that Blair’s government allegedly “sexed up”, said he could go public after Chilcot’s findings were published.

He said: “What I have written is a record of events surrounding the invasion of Iraq from my then professional perspective.

“My intention is that this should be a resource available to scholars, but after my decease (may be sooner depending on what Chilcot publishes). I have no intention, however, of violating my vows of official secrecy by publishing any memoir.”

Sources close to Dearlove have said he insists Chilcot should recognise the part played by Blair and Campbell in media reports suggesting that Saddam could use chemical weapons against British troops based in Cyprus – a claim that led to Britain invading Iraq.

Blair and Campbell have consistently denied making misleading statements about WMDs.

It emerged last week that Chilcot had written to Prime Minister David Cameron informing him that he intended to write personally to all those he intended to criticise. Blair was reportedly on that list.