Britain broke global law when it invaded Iraq in 2003, its deputy prime minister at the time, John Prescott, said on Sunday in the wake of the Chilcot report’s criticism of the decision, according to The Guardian.
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Mr Twigg also disputed a news report that said he had “defended” Tony Blair in the Commons last Wednesday, arguing that his comments were meant to find out on behalf of constituents whether the Prime Minister thought Chilcot’s findings confirmed or otherwise the main accusations levelled at Mr Blair, namely that he had lied to or misled MPs, that intelligence findings had been distorted or that he had broken global law by going to war.
Former Conservative leadership candidate David Davis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme that he wanted parliament to declare Blair in “contempt” for his role in taking Britain to war in Iraq. The Chilcot report makes it clear that Blair and his allies misrepresented and over-stated the intelligence case, which is precisely what Blix said to Blair before the invasion was even launched.
His report labelled the six year-long war “an intervention which went badly wrong, with consequences to this day”.
I think now it’s time to leave Mr Blair alone.
If accepted by Speaker of the House John Bercow, MPs could debate it before the summer recess.
I am pleased that Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has apologised on behalf of the Labour Party to the relatives of those who died and suffered injury.
The move to pass judgement on Blair comes as campaigners and politicians have been looking for parliamentary and legal methods to hold Blair to account in the wake of last week’s Chilcot report.
Prescott said Blair’s commitment to the invasion was “devastating” and gave the Bush government “all the Americans needed to go in, without United Nations support”.
“Parliament must hold to account, including Tony Blair, those who took us into this particular war”. “With great sadness and anger, I now believe him to be right”, Prescott wrote in a piece to be published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper.
The former deputy Prime Minister has said his guilt over the invasion will haunt him forever.
Almost 4,500 American personnel, 179 British troops and some 150,000 Iraqis were killed in the six-year war, plunging Iraq into chaos, which is thought to have helped create Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
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Saddam Hussein was a serious threat back then and I had to have a gas mask and underground bunker along with my Israeli friends, both Jewish and Arab, when the Iraqi tyrant was threatening to send a barrage of Scud missiles and poison gas onto Tel-Aviv. The 6,000 page, 2.6 million words report took seven years to produce by a team headed by ex-civil servant Sir John Chilcot.
