Blair can expect tough questions. Photo Credit: Remy Steinegger

Blair can expect tough questioning. Photo Credit: Remy Steinegger

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair allegedly begged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to hold the Iraq Inquiry private because he feared he would be subject to a “show trial”, The Observer reported last year. Now, people are queuing up for tickets to the public grilling.

The Iraq inquiry team revealed today that Blair, who was Prime Minister when Britain went to war with Iraq in 2003, will appear for a full day at the inquiry in February, the BBC reported. Blair is the highest profiled person to be called in this inquiry and, owing to the already considerable interest from the public to watch the inquiry, a public ballot will be held for seats in both the morning and afternoon session. There are only 60 or so seats available in total in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, and a third of these are already reserved for the families of soldiers who died in the war.

Inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot told the BBC that, “There has been considerable interest from members of the public wanting to know how to get a seat for this particular hearing.” He added: “We believe the fairest way to do this is to allocate seats by ballot.”

The Telegraph reported that there will be two ballots, the first for the families of troops killed in Iraq and the other for everybody else. Those who are unsuccessful will be given priority for seats in the overspill room, a spokeswoman for the inquiry said.

The session will be streamed on the inquiry’s website, www.iraqinquiry.org.uk,and is likely to be broadcast on TV news channels.