Blair 'relished' going to war

TONY Blair "relished" sending troops into action in Iraq, according to claims by a former Downing Street aide.

Lance Price, a former No 10 spin doctor, has published diaries of his time with the Prime Minister that paint a highly unflattering picture of life at Downing Street.

Mr Price stated that Mr Blair "relished his first blooding as PM" when he sent British troops into action in Iraq.

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The entry was written when the Prime Minister ordered military action for the first time, sending RAF pilots on bombing missions along with the United States over Iraq at Christmas 1998.

But Mr Price also exposed, for the first time, the contempt with which Mr Blair viewed Donald Dewar, how he raged against Cardinal Winning, then the leader of the Scotland's Catholics, and how Downing Street was asked by the BBC director-general, John Birt, to leak a report rubbishing plans for a "Scottish six" news programme.

Mr Price's diary from Saturday, 14 November 1998 reported a visit to Scotland with the Prime Minister. He stated: "He [Blair] felt he really had to go for the Nationalists because Donald [Dewar] wasn't brave enough to. He'd been pathetic at a meeting in London on Tuesday. A total wimp."

An entry for Sunday, 7 November came at the heart of an escalating row over the Act of Settlement, which barred Catholics from marrying into the Royal Family and inheriting the throne.

Mr Price called the legislation the Act of Succession, but makes it clear how dismissive the Prime Minister was of Cardinal Winning. He wrote: "He was fuming about Cardinal Winning, attacking him over a letter Blair had written saying there was no urgency in reviewing the Act of Succession.

"He said the one thing that made him mad was 'f*****g prelates getting involved in politics and pretending it was nothing to do with politics'. He said that, as the Royal Family were all Protestants it clearly wasn't an urgent issue. Pat McFadden, [Deputy Chief of staff at No 10] and I had to explain that they couldn't marry Catholics either, and he said he didn't realise that."

In 1997 and 1998, members of the BBC in Scotland, and some politicians, lobbied hard for BBC Scotland to be allowed to produce its own 6pm national news bulletin.

Mr Price revealed how Mr John Birt asked No 10 to leak a report undermining the "Scottish six" campaign.

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In his diary entry for Friday, 30 October 1998, Mr Price wrote: "John Birt has been in touch. He wants to stop BBC Scotland doing their own six o'clock news on TV and wants help leaking a survey showing most Scots don't want it."

No 10 declined to comment yesterday.