Blair tries to move on from Iraq

The issue of Iraq is firmly back on the agenda

Tony Blair is trying to move on from the row over the publication of the Iraq legal advice, with the launch of a new campaign poster.

It features Mr Blair and Gordon Brown and asks voters whether they want Labour investment or Tory cuts.

Downing Street published the full legal advice on the Iraq war on Thursday.

The Tories are renewing their calls for new immigration controls on Friday. The Lib Dems are highlighting plans to make older people better off.

Mr Blair told a BBC Question Time Special: "Go and read the intelligence I got and then make up your own minds as to whether I'm a liar or not."

He said the decision to go to war was "political" as the attorney general had advised the war was lawful.

"Was it better to leave Saddam in power - or put him in prison? I think it was better to put him in prison."

Go and describe these findings as a damp squib to the families of the service personnel who gave their lives in Iraq Charles Kennedy Fact check: Was war legal? Analysis: Iraq war legality UK cast doubt on US view

The published advice shows that the attorney general told Tony Blair on 7 March 2003 a second UN resolution was the safest legal course.

Ten days later Lord Goldsmith's final advice was published, but included no concerns about the legality of the war.

Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy said the advice raised fresh questions. But Mr Blair said the "smoking gun" had turned out to be "a damp squib".

The issue dominated the questioning when the three main party leaders appeared on a Question Time special.

Lord Goldsmith's 7 March advice was never shown to the Cabinet - instead, the 17 March advice was. It was also made public in an answer in the House of Lords. The war started on 20 March.

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In the earlier advice, Lord Goldsmith raised possible legal arguments which could be made against the Iraq war.

He warned there were "a number of ways" in which opponents of the war could bring legal action.

"We cannot be certain that they would not succeed," he said, adding a second UN resolution might be the way of preventing such legal action succeeding.

'Unequivocal'?

Key questions he considered included whether the wording of previous resolutions on Iraq authorised military action.

But Lord Goldsmith's nine-paragraph written answer to Parliament on 17 March raised no such doubts, stating: "Authority to use force against Iraq exists" from previous UN resolutions.

Speaking on a special edition of the BBC's Question Time programme, Conservative leader Michael Howard said he believed the war was right, but that Mr Blair had lied.

READ THE LEGAL ADVICE The Attorney General's advice to the prime minister on the legality of military action against Iraq, 7 March 2003 (692k) Download the reader here The advice to Parliament on 17 March 2003

On the same programme Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said the advice had had to be "absolutely dragged" out of the government and attacked Mr Blair's use of the phrase "damp squib".

"Go and describe these findings as a damp squib to the families of the service personnel who gave their lives in Iraq."

He said the Lib Dems still believed British troops should be aiming to return at the end of the year, even if the Iraqi government requested them to stay, although he said it would be possible to consider a request to be part of a UN peacekeeping force.

Mr Blair, asked about the issue by audience members, said: "It's not a matter of the attorney's general's advice because it's been shown that he advised it was lawful. Neither was it a matter of misusing intelligence.

"It is, however, a question of a difficult decision I had to take; Was it better to leave Saddam in power - or put him in prison? I think it was better to put him in prison."