A DEFIANT Tony Blair urged the British people to feel “pride and achievement” in the Iraq war yesterday - but faced shouts of “murderer” from some families of soldiers who died.

In highly emotional evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, the former prime minister was twice asked if he had any regrets about the huge loss of life, but declined to express any.

Instead, Mr Blair said: “Responsibility, but not a regret for removing Saddam Hussein. I think he was a monster. I believed he threatened not just the region, but the world.”

The lack of contrition sparked angry scenes from relatives of dead British soldiers in the public gallery. One mother shouted “liar”, while at least one other yelled “murderer”. Other relatives booed.

Mr Blair also took head on the “liar” charge, saying: “This is not about a lie, or a deceit, or a conspiracy or a deception – it’s a decision.”

Insisting Iraqis were now “upbeat about their future”, he added: “We can look back, the armed forces in particular can look back, with immense sense of pride and achievement in what we did.”

Twice describing the Iraqi dictator as a “monster”, he said: “The decision I took – and frankly would take again – was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction we should stop him.”

And, far from being on the back foot, he challenged Britain to recognise that the threat from Iran today – and, perhaps, the need for military action – was greater than Iraq in 2003.

However, Mr Blair displayed rare nerves at what was widely seen as his last opportunity to justify the bloody war that split the country and helped force him out of No.10 prematurely.