The long-awaited Chilcot report on the 2003 invasion of Iraq is being held up by rows over criticisms of leading figures in the Blair government and will almost certainly not be published until after the general election, the Guardian has learned.

That scenario emerged on Tuesday after former Conservative foreign secretary Lord Hurd described the way the inquiry had dragged on went beyond questions of mere negligence and forgiveable delay. “It is becoming a scandal”, he told peers. He added: “This is not something of trivial importance. It is something of which a large number of people in this country look anxiously for truth.”

Tony Blair has denied that he is to blame for the delays in the publication of the Chilcot report. However, along with Jack Straw, then foreign secretary, MI6, and government law officers, the former Labour prime minister almost certainly faces criticism in draft passages of the report he has been shown. Under the so-called “Maxwellisation” process, they are entitled to respond to any proposed criticism of their conduct.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Dykes described the continuing delay on Tuesday as an “utter and total disgrace”. He added: “More and more people think it is some kind of attempt to prolong the agony for Mr Blair facing possible war crimes charges.”

Cabinet Office minister Lord Wallace said the inquiry was completely independent of government and it was up to Sir John Chilcot to decide when to submit the report to David Cameron.

Wallace said the government had decided it would be “inappropriate” to publish the report before the election, if it was submitted after the end of February, because of the commitment to allow time for “substantial consultation and debate”. The government has “committed that if this is not available for publication by the end of February, it will be held back until after the election,” Wallace said.

It is widely assumed in government circles that Chilcot will not be in a position to submit his report by that end of February deadline.

Wallace confirmed that after years of heated disputes with successive cabinet secretaries, and discussions with Washington, Chilcot had agreed to a settlement whereby summaries, and “the gist”, of more than a hundred records of conversations between Blair and George Bush in the runup to the invasion, and of records of 200 cabinet discussions, would be published, but not the documents themselves.

Wallace told peers: “We all regret the delay. But this is not unusual for inquiries of this sort.”

Referring to other long-running inquiries, he said the Chilcot probe looked at nine years of British policy and operations in Iraq, so it was not entirely unexpected that it had taken such a long time.

He said Cameron had not intervened at any point over publication.