Former Deputy PM John Prescott makes sensational apology to families of 179 soldiers killed in Iraq War
The Labour peer said he ‘will live with the decision of going to war and its catastrophic consequences for the rest of my life’
JOHN Prescott has declared the Iraq War illegal and apologised to the families of the 179 British soldiers killed in the conflict.
The former deputy Prime Minister has said his guilt over the invasion will haunt him forever.
Prescott 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.”
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The Labour peer turned on his old boss Tony Blair, blaming him for not allowing cabinet ministers sufficient documentary evidence to base decisions on.
He said there no paperwork even when Attorney General Lord Goldsmith told them the war was justified.
He writes in his : “The Attorney General verbally announced it was legal, but provided no documentation to justify it.”
Prescott said he ‘takes his fair share of the blame’ before apologising to the families of those killed.
He said: "It 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."
His apology comes in the week Sir John Chilcot finally released his long awaited report into the conflict.
Chilcot revealed a war doomed from the start by a devastating litany of establishment failures and deceptions.
Delivering the scathing verdict, its boss Sir John branded the 2003 invasion “almost a complete failure”.
His report labelled the six year-long war “an intervention which went badly wrong, with consequences to this day”.
The 2.3 million word long, 13 volume report found Blair rushed to war prematurely, plotting with George Bush to oust Saddam as early as December 2001.
It said the UK invaded "before the peaceful options for disarmament were exhausted and the Attorney General's advice was "not clear" and "far from satisfactory".
The war’s legality was also cast into fresh doubt after the report said with the top government lawyer’s advice was “not clear” and “far from satisfactory.”
Sir John said: “Military action at that time was not a last resort.”
It revealed Blair told George W Bush “I’m with you whatever” in July 2002 - despite the inquiry finding that peaceful options were still available to contain Saddam as late as March 2003.
Tony Blair has said that his decision to take military action against Saddam Hussain was taken “in good faith and in what I believed to be the best interests of the country”.
He said: “I can look those families and the country in the eye and tell them I did not mislead them.
“What I cannot do, and will not do, is say that the decision was wrong. I think the world is a safer and better place because of it.”
Tearful relatives of Iraq’s war dead branded Mr Blair “the world’s worst terrorist”.
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