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Blair govt had doubts about Iraq
09/07/2007 14:13 - (SA)
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair's government colleagues had serious doubts about the invasion of Iraq, a former top aide said in diaries published on Monday.
Alastair Campbell, Blair's powerful chief spin doctor between 1997 and 2003, wrote that Blair showed no doubts about joining the US-led war, which divided his governing Labour Party and the country.
"All of us, I think, had had pretty severe moments of doubt but he hadn't really, or if he had he had hidden them even from us," Campbell wrote in an entry dated March 18, 2003 - a day after Parliament voted to endorse war. "Now there was no going back at all."
At a Cabinet meeting a day earlier, Campbell wrote, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Labour Party chairperson John Reid "and one or two others looked physically sick".
'We will be judged'
Reid warned Blair: "We will be judged by the Iraq that replaces Saddam's Iraq," Campbell wrote.
Dissent within the Cabinet was well known at the time. Robin Cook, who was Blair's first foreign secretary, resigned as leader of the House of Commons in protest of the invasion plans. Claire Short, the international development secretary, had made her reservations known, though she didn't resign until after the invasion.
The Blair Years is boiled down from voluminous diaries - reportedly running to more than two million words - kept by Campbell during his years at Downing Street.
In extracts released on Sunday, Campbell said Blair had considered quitting in mid-2002, more than six months before the invasion of Iraq.
Campbell resigned as political editor of The Daily Mirror tabloid in 1994 to work for Blair, who led the Labour Party to a general election victory three years later. He became the prime minister's chief press secretary, setting up a formidable machine designed to advance the government's views and control the news agenda.
David Kelly scandal
He resigned in 2003 in the wake of an inquiry into the death of government weapons scientist David Kelly, who killed himself after being exposed as the source of a British Broadcasting Corporation report that accused Downing Street of "sexing up" intelligence to make a stronger case for war.
The inquiry cleared Campbell of wrongdoing, but he stepped down amid concerns that his notoriety meant he, rather than Blair, was becoming the focus of media stories.
Campbell said the period around Kelly's death was among the worst in his life.
"I was a player in a series of events that somehow or other led to a man deciding he should kill himself," Campbell told the BBC. He insisted, however, he had acted entirely properly throughout.
The book has been criticised for omitting details of the often tense relationship between Blair and Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who succeeded him as prime minister.
Campbell said he did not want to give ammunition to the opposition Conservatives. Brown has said he does not intend to read the book.
- AP
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