Jack Straw says he could have stopped Iraq war and offers first Cabinet apology

Published on Thursday 21 January 2010 21:35

JUSTICE Secretary Jack Straw has admitted he could have stopped the invasion of Iraq, as he became the first Cabinet minister to apologise for the war, which cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

• Jack Straw arrives to face questions over his role in Britain's decision to go to war. Picture: Getty Images

In a dramatic evidence session to the Chilcot Inquiry, Mr Straw said it was the hardest decision of his life but insisted he had not considered resigning as foreign secretary.

"I was fully aware that my support for military action was critical. If I had refused that, the UK's participation in the military action would not in practice have been possible," he said.

"There almost certainly would have been no majority in either Cabinet or in the Commons."

Mr Straw said he regretted the high casualty count and the chaotic aftermath, but he also signalled that he had opposed the "regime change" stance of Tony Blair.

Mr Straw told the panel: "There has been the grave loss of life – of our military personnel and civilians, others in the coalition, and the many thousands of Iraqis. I deeply regret this.

"I had never wanted war but the strategy we had adopted to secure Iraq's disarmament was diplomacy backed by the threat of force. But whilst life can only be understood backwards, it has to be lived forwards."

Mr Straw said he had only "very reluctantly" came round to supporting the invasion and on the eve of the war had even presented Mr Blair, then prime minister, with an alternative plan that did not involve committing British troops alongside US soldiers.

Bogus claims in the "dodgy dossier" that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes' notice were an error which continued to plague the Labour government, he said.

"Plainly, that reference should have been more precise – that was an error and it was an error that has haunted us ever since."

He insisted, however, that the aim of the invasion had always been to disarm Saddam Hussein.

Mr Straw also revealed there had been a difference of opinion between him and the former prime minister. He said he disagreed with the premier over the "regime change" goal and the Foreign Office viewed it would be illegal without UN approval.

Mr Straw also suggested he was lukewarm over the style of Mr Blair's personal memos to former US president George Bush, which indicated Britain would back its ally all the way.

"So far as was I happy with it? Mainly … would I have written the memorandum in the same way? Probably not, because I'm a different person."

Mr Straw said he had offered the prime minister "my best judgment, coupled with my loyalty".

In a surprise admission, he said his decision to back the war had not relied on intelligence.

"My starting point on the assessment of the threat was what was publicly known about Iraq's WMD programmes, and its behaviour going back more than a dozen years," he said.

His testimony was criticised by political opponents.

Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "Jack Straw's insistence that he used his 'judgment' rather than solid proof of the existence of WMD is a weak defence of his role in this disastrous war."

Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, seized on Mr Straw's admission that the inability to find weapons of mass destruction "undermined" trust.

He said: "If, as he says, the public lost confidence in Labour years ago, why should we presume it is any different now?"

&#149 The mother of a Glasgow soldier killed in Iraq claims she has been deliberately blocked from watching Mr Blair give evidence to the official inquiry because of her campaigning.

Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon, of the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers, was 19 when he was killed in Basra, Iraq, in June 2004, has been an outspoken critic of the government's handling of the conflict.

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