During a House Of Commons debate on Wednesday after the publication of the Iraq Inquiry, Mr Twigg moved to debunk the “three main complaints” he said had been levelled at the former Labour Prime Minister over the decision to take military action.
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Sir Edward said: “I opposed the Iraq War back in 2003 and remember being one of the sixteen Conservative MPs who did not support going to war”.
He described the Iraq War as an intervention that went “badly wrong” with consequences still being felt to this day.
The Iraq war remains a touchstone issue in a country where the conflict was never popular, even before Mr. Blair’s main justification – that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction – was exposed as untrue. I believe I made the right decision, and that the world is better and safer as a result of it.
“I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe”, said Blair, his voice breaking with emotion in a speech in central London.
The inquiry also turned up an early gesture of loyalty on Blair’s part to then-US president George W. Bush.
Military policeman’s father Reg Keys said it was clear that the prime minister “deliberately misled” the country and that his son Tom “died in vain”, while Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew was killed by a roadside bomb, said the families reserved the right “to call specific parties to answer for their actions in the courts”.
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has come under fire after the release of the Chilcot report.
Sir John Chilcot’s report, published on Wednesday, said Mr Blair had overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, sent ill-prepared troops into battle and had “wholly inadequate” plans for the aftermath of the conflict.
“But if you’re saying to me do I apologise for the decision that I took, the core decision?”
It made him set aside doubts and inconvenient truths and costs us and Iraq dear.
He also said that the legal basis for British military action in Iraq was “far from satisfactory”, stressing that British policy on Iraq was made on the basis of “flawed intelligence and assessments”.
The official report into Britain’s involvement in the 2003 Iraqi invasion led by the United States is highly critical of the decision by the UK government to get involved in the war.
The Chilcot probe found that the invasion of Iraq claiming the existence of mass-destruction weapons was carried out based on faulty intelligence and before having exhausted all peaceful options.
Tony Blair has been defended by Halton MP Derek Twigg over his decision to go to war in Iraq.
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Second, the outcome of the invasion was underestimated by Mr. Blair, “despite explicit warnings”.
