Peers dispute Blair's Iraq claims

Two former heads of the civil service yesterday disputed Tony Blair's claim that the Cabinet knew military action against Iraq was likely a year before the war began.

The former prime minister last week told the Chilcot Inquiry into the conflict that his ministers realised from early 2002 that the government had embarked on a policy that would probably lead to an attack on the Middle Eastern country.

But former Cabinet secretary Lord Wilson of Dinton said yesterday that Mr Blair assured his colleagues "nothing was imminent" at a Cabinet meeting in April 2002.

He told the inquiry: "I don't think anyone would have gone away thinking they had authorised a course of action that would lead to military action."

And his successor, Lord Turnbull, said Mr Blair kept putting off a Cabinet discussion about the possibility of attacking Iraq in the months before the March 2003 invasion. He said: "The prime minister basically said, 'Well, they (his ministers] knew the score.' That isn't borne out by what actually happened."

Mr Blair was asked by the inquiry panel on Friday whether he felt he had a "clear Cabinet mandate" in mid-2002 to pursue a policy on Iraq that would probably lead Britain to war.

He replied: "I honestly don't think you could have a Cabinet minister around that table who would say, 'Oh my goodness, I didn't know we were saying Saddam (Hussein] had to comply with the UN inspectors or we were going to take military action.' I mean, I was saying it. At every Prime Minister's Questions I was being asked it."

However, Lord Wilson, Cabinet secretary from 1998 to 2002, said there was only one Cabinet meeting "of substance" about Iraq on 7 March, 2002, which lasted just over an hour.