A Labour MP last night said that Foreign Secretary Robin Cook should be ''embarrassed'' over his handling of the arms-to-Sierra-Leone affair.
Eric Illsey, a member of the foreign affairs committee which Mr Cook is due to face tomorrow, added that there appeared to be a ''shambolic way of working within the Foreign Office''.
Mr Illsey, MP for Barnsley Central, told BBC Radio 4: ''Obviously, the Foreign Secretary has to be embarrassed at what has happened over this. It would appear that he has given the wrong information to Parliament, that his officials and one of his Ministers have given the wrong information to the select committee, that his own interpretation of the UN embargo was wrong.''
Mr Illsey told Radio 4's The Westminster Hour: ''I think, with the Foreign Secretary coming before us, this will be a good opportunity to try and clear up once and for all what has happened in relation to this issue.
''I think he owes it to the select committee to clear up why he interpreted the UN embargo differently from the UN's own lawyers and why there appears to be such a shambolic way of working within the Foreign Office.''
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