Exposed: How Government let Saddam round up 400 Britons

The Government allowed a passenger jet to land in Kuwait at the start of the first Gulf War - delivering nearly 400 Britons into Saddam Hussein's hands - so nine special agents could secretly enter the country, it is revealed today.

The men, women and children on a fuel-laden British Airways Boeing 747 were bombed on a Kuwaiti runway by the Iraqi air force before being split up and sent to 70 locations to act as human shields.

This allowed seven of the MI6 operatives to escape from the airport with their equipment as part of a top-secret intelligence gathering exercise, says journalist Stephen Davis.

In The Mail on Sunday's Live magazine, Mr Davis writes that both Margaret Thatcher and John Major subsequently covered up the fact that the invasion of Kuwait had begun four hours before the BA flight landed in the war zone on August 2, 1990 - and that every other flight had been cancelled.

During their four months in captivity some of the 376 passengers lived on starvation rations, women - and men - were raped and others suffered serious beatings.

The human shields' plight caught the public imagination after chilling images of Saddam stroking the hair of terrified five-year-old Stuart Lockwood were shown around the world.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker will demand a public inquiry at a Press conference in the Commons tomorrow.

He said: "It is clear that the House was misled by Thatcher and Major, who both denied British personnel were on board the plane and denied they had any knowledge of the Iraqi threat to crew and passengers."

Jennifer Chappell, who spent her 13th birthday in captivity, said last night: "I am angry that they used us, that they let us fly knowing the danger they were putting us into."

The Foreign Office said: "The Government's position has already been outlined to Parliament and we have a long-standing policy of not discussing intelligence matters."