Prescott Says 'Illegal' Iraq War Will Haunt Him

Lord Prescott has condemned Tony Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq, a decision the former deputy PM at the time had supported.

Lord Prescott's comments come just days after the publication of the Iraq Inquiry report by Sir John Chilcot.

Writing in The Sunday Mirror, he said: "I will live with the decision of going to war and its catastrophic consequences for the rest of my life.

"In 2004, the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said that as regime change was the prime aim of the Iraq War, it was illegal.

With great sadness and anger, I now believe him to be right."

Lord Prescott said the Chilcot report was a "damning indictment of how the Blair government handled the war - and I take my fair share of blame".

"As the deputy prime minister in that Government I must express my fullest apology, especially to the families of the 179 men and women who gave their lives in the Iraq War."

He also welcomed current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's decision to apologise on behalf of the party for the war.

The Chilcot report strongly criticised the way former prime minister Mr Blair took the country to war in 2003 on the basis of "flawed" intelligence with inadequate preparation at a time when Saddam Hussein did not pose an "imminent
threat".

Sir John also said the way the decision about the legal basis for the war was reached was "far from satisfactory", but the report did not rule on the legality of the military action.

Lord Prescott said he had concerns about the way Mr Blair ran his government, with Cabinet ministers given "too little paper documentation" to make decisions.

He also said intelligence reports were based on "discussions at receptions and prejudiced sources", amounting to "tittle-tattle, not hard evidence".

"We now learn from Chilcot that even the intelligence agencies warned of the inadequacies or reliability of such intelligence sources," Lord Prescott said.

"But these concerns were never referred to in any of the intelligence documents given to the Cabinet."

Mr Blair has defended the decision to oust Saddam and insisted that his efforts to form a close relationship with the US had persuaded Mr Bush to pursue a second UN security council resolution, which ultimately was not obtained.

He also said intelligence reports were based on "discussions at receptions and prejudiced sources", amounting to "tittle-tattle, not hard evidence".

"We now learn from Chilcot that even the intelligence agencies warned of the inadequacies or reliability of such intelligence sources," Lord Prescott said.

"But these concerns were never referred to in any of the intelligence documents given to the Cabinet."

Mr Blair has defended the decision to oust Saddam and insisted that his efforts to form a close relationship with the US had persuaded Mr Bush to pursue a second UN security council resolution, which ultimately was not obtained.