TONY BLAIR was warned two months before the invasion of Iraq it would be illegal to go to war without the United Nations’ authority, the inquiry into the conflict heard yesterday.
A slew of newly declassified Government papers showed Lord Goldsmith, then the attorney general, was initially “pessimistic” that there was sufficient legal basis for military action.
However, after being urged to change his view by the then foreign secretary Jack Straw – who warned against overly “dogmatic” legal advice – he eventually ruled it was lawful.
The inquiry heard how Mr Straw rejected the advice of his senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office, Sir Michael Wood, that an invasion without a UN Security Council resolution specifically authorising military action would be a “crime of aggression”.
Sir Michael’s deputy Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who resigned in protest, described the Government’s treatment of the legal advice as “lamentable”.
