TONY Blair’s Downing Street ordered a secret memo which said the Iraq war may be illegal to be burnt, a former UK defence secretary has alleged.
Geoff Hoon, who was Labour’s defence secretary for six years from 1999, has insisted that claims the war could have been illegal are not the “nonsense” Blair branded them.
Instead, he alleged to The Daily Mail that there had been a “cover-up” at the highest levels of government.
Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff, reportedly told Hoon’s staff “in no uncertain terms” that they had to “burn” the memo about the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The memo was reportedly written by then attorney general Peter Goldsmith, who changed his mind just seven days before the conflict began.
READ MORE: George Kerevan: Here are the real reasons why Blair was rewarded with his gong
Hoon said that staff at the Ministry of Defence had been alarmed by the order to destroy the original memo, and defied it by instead locking the paper inside a safe.
However, Powell - who was Blair’s chief of staff from 1995 to 2007 - has denied the allegations.
He claimed that he had sent a separate “minute” from Goldsmith months earlier and asked that that one be destroyed, and that the “attorney general's advice came later”, according to The Daily Mail.
That paper reported that a source close to Hoon insisted that Powell was wrong and that the order had indeed been to burn Goldsmith’s legal advice.
Hoon is a senior Labour figure who has served across top government roles including as transport secretary and leader of the House of Commons.
A memoir he released in late 2021 - titled See How They Run - further attacks Blair. Among other allegations, Hoon claims he was “hung out to dry” and sacked as defence secretary in 2005 as Blair sought to escape blame for the Iraq war.
The Chilcot Inquiry published in 2016 found that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action in Iraq were "far from satisfactory".
Its damning verdict found Blair’s government had claimed to act for the international community despite knowing it did not have majority support on the UN security council, and that there had been no substantive discussion of the legal issues recorded at Cabinet level.
The news comes as a petition to have Tony Blair stripped of his new knighthood approaches 700,000.
The petition claims the former Labour prime minister was “personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts".
"For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes," it adds.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel