Blair: 'I've never told a lie'

2005-04-27 22:11

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday denied opponents' claims that he lied over the war in Iraq, insisting: "I have never told a lie."

Conservative Party leader Michael Howard has waged a highly personal campaign as he seeks to unseat Blair's Labour Party government in the May 5 national elections.

He has urged voters "to wipe the smirk" off Blair's face and has attacked the prime minister's integrity.

The Conservatives supported the war, to which Britain committed thousands of troops, but now say the government made exaggerated claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

"I still think it was the right thing to go to war," Howard said on Wednesday. "But you could have gone to war and told the truth, and that is what Mr Blair did not do."

Never told a lie

Blair told Sky News television: "I have never told a lie. No. I don't intend to go telling lies to people. I did not lie over Iraq."

"I don't want to get into a debate with people who want to trade insults," he said. "What I would like to do is debate the policy and the future of the country."

Blair accused the Tories of trying to deflect attention from their policies with attacks on his integrity.

"You have got a Conservative Party whose economic plan has collapsed, whose health service plan they do not want to debate, neither their education policy," he said. "We're the only the party in this campaign actually making speeches on policy."

While polls suggest Iraq is not the main election issue for most voters, the war's shadow still looms over Blair.

Summary of advice

Britain's Channel 4 television news said on Wednesday it had obtained a summary of advice prepared by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith for the prime minister in March 2003 about the legality of war.

While Goldsmith's later published advice said the war was legal, this draft was more equivocal, Channel 4 said, advising that a United Nations Security Council resolution authorising force would be the "safest legal course". That resolution never came.

Goldsmith also said that "a reasonable case" could be made that the earlier Security Council resolution 1441 permitted the use of military action, the channel said.

- SAPA