Justice for Major over Captain Philippson's death

Anne Main has called for an apology from the Secretary of State for Defence following the publication of the Second Board of Inquiry into the death of Captain James Philippson.

Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has today called for an apology from the Secretary of State for Defence, Bob Ainsworth, following the publication of the Second Board of Inquiry into the death of Captain James Philippson, the first soldier to die in the Helmand deployment in Afghanistan, on 11th June 2006.

The report found that the actions of Captain Philippson's commanding Officer, Major Bristow, were not a contributory factor in his death and also highlighted a number of requests for extra equipment, including nightvision goggles, from commanders on the ground, which had gone unanswered.

Anne and Captain Philippson's father, Tony, met with Armed Forces Minister, Bill Ramell, yesterday evening to discuss the findings of the report.

Commenting on the findings, Anne said:

"The finding of the Second Board of Inquiry that the decisions of Captain Philippson's commanding officer, Major Bristow, were not a contributory factor in his death, is very welcome.

It was wrong for Bob Ainsworth to allow the smear on Captain Philippson's commanding officer's conduct to remain, even after the Coroner ruled that the death was caused 'not by the terrorists but by the lack of basic equipment'. This is not acceptable behaviour for any Government Minister, and he should come to the House of Commons to give a statement and apologise publicly to Major Bristow, given the findings of this new Board of Inquiry.

It is only a shame that it has taken so long to get to this point. Even when there were acknowledged procedural errors in the first Board of Inquiry and the coroner had ruled that lack of equipment was the overwhelming factor, the Secretary of State for Defence, then the Minister for the Armed Forces, Bob Ainsworth, was happy to continue to publicly refer to the flawed original Board of Inquiry, and its criticisms of the patrol commander.

Captain Philippson's father, Tony, was forced to mount a long campaign to call for a new Board of Inquiry to find out the truth, and, despite the uncovering of procedural errors, we had to personally challenge Mr Ainsworth on a number of occasions before the Second Board of Inquiry was granted.

This new report rightly absolves Major Bristow of responsibility, and it also finds that, despite various requests for extra equipment, including night vision equipment, from those on the ground in the area, Major Bristow and his troops had not received any enhancements in answer to these requests prior to the day that Captain Philippson died.

Major Bristow was Captain Philippson's friend and Commanding Officer and he felt he was unable to speak out about this matter. It is a tribute to Tony Philippson that, at long last, we have got to the truth, which absolves Major Bristow of any responsibility for this death, and underlines the lack of mission-essential equipment."