Alastair Campbell says Tony Blair gagged adviser over Iraqi war

By MARTYN MCLAUGHLIN
Published on 25/06/2012 02:39

FORMER prime minister Tony Blair prevented the government’s most senior lawyer from disclosing the full legal basis for going to war in Iraq to his cabinet, Alastair Campbell has claimed in his memoirs.

The former New Labour spin doctor suggests that while the attorney general Lord Goldsmith wanted to “put the reality” for a case against, as well as for, military action, Mr Blair believed such legal opinion would prove too “nuanced.”

Recalling the events in March 2003, he writes: “TB [Tony Blair] also made it clear he did not particularly want Goldsmith to launch a detailed discussion at cabinet, though it would have to happen at some time, and ministers would want to cross-examine.

“With the mood as it was, and with Robin [Cook] and Clare [Short] operating as they were, he knew if there was any nuance, they would be straight out saying the advice was that it was not legal.”