Secret letter shows Blair ‘knew Iraq war was illegal’

The pressure on Tony Blair is mounting. After only four days of the Chilcot inquiry, the former prime minister is reported to be furious that a succession of senior diplomats and civil servants have torn into his reputation by questioning his judgment and honesty over the decision to go to war with Iraq.

On Sunday, it got considerably worse. The Mail on Sunday reported that Blair's senior legal advisor at the time, Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith, wrote his boss a letter in July 2002, eight months before the invasion, making it clear that a declaration of war on Iraq, with a view to deposing Saddam Hussein, would be illegal.

Not only did Blair ignore the advice, he issued instructions that Goldsmith should be gagged and barred from Cabinet, and then ordered a cover-up to ensure the public never found out about Goldsmith's advice, said the Mail.

Today, Blair denied that he had gagged Goldsmith and, when asked by CNN whether it was true that the Attorney-General had been bullied into keeping quiet, replied: "No it's not".

Goldsmith wrote the letter on July 29, 2002, on a single side of A4 headed notepaper, after attending a Cabinet meeting six days earlier at which he was apparently horrified to hear that Britain and America were set on 'regime change' in Iraq.

The Attorney General was unequivocal in his argument that the war would be illegal. He pointed out that:

♦ Although UN rules permitted military intervention on the basis of self-defence, they did not apply in this case because Britain was not under threat from Iraq;

♦ While the UN allowed "humanitarian intervention" in certain cases, this did not apply here;

♦ It would be hard to rely on earlier UN resolutions dating back to the 1990s approving the use of force against Saddam Hussein.

The Mail claimed Blair was infuriated by the letter - not just its contents but the fact that Goldsmith had committed this thoughts to paper. As well barring Goldsmith from Cabinet, Blair chose not to inform other Cabinet members of the Attorney-General's advice.

Eight months later, after being virtually ostracised by Downing Street and losing three stone in weight because of his anxiety, Goldsmith finally gave Blair what he wanted, according to the Mail. After being "more or less pinned against the wall" by two of Blair's loyal aides, Lord (Charles) Falconer and Baroness (Sally) Morgan, Goldsmith issued a brief statement saying the war was legal on the basis of previous UN resolutions - despite having said the opposite in his July 2002 letter.

Without Goldsmith's say-so, British military leaders were not prepared to send troops into action. With it, the invasion could begin.

The letter from Goldsmith, which is now likely to be central to any move to charge Blair as a war criminal, is understood to be in a bundle of documents supplied to Chilcot by the Attorney-General's department. Both Blair and Goldsmith are due to go before the inquiry in the new year. Blair said today he would respond in full to the Mail on Sunday allegation when that time comes.