Alastair Campbell claims Blair did ‘all he could to avoid war’ despite damning Chilcot Report verdict
FORMER No10 spin doctor Alastair Campbell issued a dizzying defence of Tony Blair’s role in the Iraq War today despite the damning verdict of the Chilcot Report.
Sir John Chilcot said the invasion of Iraq was not the “last resort” and British forces were committed to the area “before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted”.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also branded the decision to march to war as "military aggression launched on a false pretext" in a brutal Commons attack.
But Mr Campbell, Mr Blair's spin chief between 1997 and 2003, today said the former PM had “agonised” over the monumental decision to go to war.
“I was one of the few people who saw the process of his making the decision close up, virtually round the clock, around the world,” he wrote in a blog post.
“Far from seeing someone hellbent on war, I saw someone doing all he could to avoid it. Far from seeing someone undermine the UN, I saw him trying his hardest to make it work. Far from seeing someone cavalier about the consequences of war, I saw someone who agonised about them, and I know he still does, as do all who were there, part of his team.”
The defiant defence comes after a cache of "love letters" between Mr Blair and George Bush showed the former PM had encouraged the then US president to "act now" in the hours after 9/11 on countries with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - two years before the Iraq War.
Mr Blair also pledged "I will be with you whatever".
Mr Campbell boasted this was the fourth inquiry to clear him of accusations made by the BBC that he “sexed up” a dossier that Saddam Hussein could arm WMDs within 45 minutes.
In an extraordinary attack on the state broadcaster he blamed the BBC’s reporting for driving weapons expert David Kelly to kill himself.
Mr Kelly had raised concerns with the media that the 45-minute claims were untrue.
Mr Campbell resigned during the Hutton Inquiry into Mr Kelly's death in 2003.
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Saying the BBC should have heeded complaints from Downing Street about the report, Mr Campbell wrote: “The BBC should have properly investigated our complaint rather than dismissed it out of hand because it came from Downing Street.
“Had they done so, David Kelly would almost certainly be alive today, and no attempt by the media to say it was ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’ will ever move me from that view, or fully erase the anger I feel at their dishonesty. Sorry, but I feel I have to say that.”