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David Cameron: UK must never repeat Iraq war mistakes Jeremy Corbyn says Blair government misled parliament over Iraq war
(about 2 hours later)
The UK must never repeat the mistakes of the Iraq war but should not conclude that military intervention is always wrong, David Cameron has said. Jeremy Corbyn has accused the previous Labour government of misleading parliament in the run-up to the Iraq war, saying MPs were handed flawed evidence in order to persuade them to back a conflict that has had catastrophic consequences.
In a statement to the House of Commons, the prime minister identified a number of lessons the government must learn after the Chilcot report delivered a devastating critique of the decision to go to war in 2003. The party leader, who voted against the 2003 invasion, fell short of naming Tony Blair as he said Iraq “posed no military threat” and dismissed evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as “flimsy and confected”.
Cameron said taking the country to war “should always be a last resort” and officials must be free to question the views of the prime minister. He also said “proper planning for what follows” was vital after the decision to go to war had been taken. Related: 'Tony Blair's epitaph was engraved today'. Our writers' verdicts on the Chilcot report
Corbyn called the war an “act of military aggression”, arguing that it was thought of as illegal “by the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion”.
“It led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions of refugees. It devastated Iraq’s infrastructure and society. The occupation fostered a lethal sectarianism that turned into a civil war. The war fuelled and spread terrorism across the region.”
As Corbyn issued his excoriating statement to the House of Commons, he was heckled by his own backbencher Ian Austin, who shouted “sit down and shut up, you’re a disgrace”.
The Labour leader said the Commons should react to the Chilcot report by remembering Robin Cook, who resigned from his role as foreign secretary on the eve of the invasion after saying he could not accept collective responsibility for the decision.
Corbyn credited his former colleague’s resignation as saying more in “a few hundred words what has been confirmed by this report in more than 2m words”.
He said the decision to go into war, in a “colonial-style occupation” had “convulsed the entire region” and led to many other disasters.
“The government’s September 2002 dossier, that Iraq had WMD that could be deployed in 45 minutes, was only the most notorious of many deceptions,” he said.
Corbyn responded to a much more cautious statement by the prime minister, who voted in favour of the Iraq war, by saying that the 2011 conflict in Libya had also left the country in the grip of warring militias.
David Cameron said that he thought the invasion in Libya was the right thing to do, telling parliament that Britain must never repeat the mistakes of the Iraq war, but should not conclude that intervention is always wrong.
Cameron identified a number of lessons the government must learn from after the Chilcot report delivered a devastating critique of the decision to go to war in 2003. He said taking the country to war “should always be a last resort” and officials must be free to question the views of the prime minister. He also said “proper planning for what follows” was vital after the decision to go to war had been taken.
“We must all pledge this will never happen again,” he said, noting that all MPs who voted as he did in favour of the war must take their share of responsibility. “We cannot turn the clock back.”“We must all pledge this will never happen again,” he said, noting that all MPs who voted as he did in favour of the war must take their share of responsibility. “We cannot turn the clock back.”
He stressed there were lessons that the UK should not draw. He maintained that the UK must stand with its American allies where they have common interests, and that the public should still be able to rely on the “judgments of our brilliant intelligence agencies”.He stressed there were lessons that the UK should not draw. He maintained that the UK must stand with its American allies where they have common interests, and that the public should still be able to rely on the “judgments of our brilliant intelligence agencies”.
“It would also be wrong to conclude our military are not capable of intervening successfully,” he said, citing Sierra Leone as an example where military action ended with a positive outcome.“It would also be wrong to conclude our military are not capable of intervening successfully,” he said, citing Sierra Leone as an example where military action ended with a positive outcome.
Cameron touched on his own record of intervention, saying he still believed it had been right to remove Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya despite the “difficulties plain for all to see” after that happened. Cameron took questions in the House, but said parliament would discuss the Chilcot report over two days next week. He criticised the culture in government that prevented Blair from being challenged by other ministers or civil servants, insisting that new structures meant that there was no question that people could question his authority without “fear or favour”.
He said getting military intervention right was hard, even when the proper processes were followed and there was international agreement in favour of action. He cited the National Security Council set up by the coalition government after the 2010 election as an example of new methods of decision-making.
Responding for Labour, Jeremy Corbyn said the war “was not in any way, as Sir John Chilcot says, a last resort. Frankly, it was an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext, as the inquiry accepts, and has long been regarded as illegal by the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion.” Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, said he believed the Iraq war was the country’s “most shameful foreign policy action in decades”. He said it was remarkable that the prime minister did not mention the note sent by Blair to George W Bush in July 2002 which said: “I will be with you, whatever”.
Going to war without UN authorisation was “profoundly dangerous and would set off series of uncontrollable and destructive events,” Corbyn added. The SNP politician said the country had continued to show poor decisions in planning, citing not just Iraq but Libya, Syria and also Brexit. “When will the UK government actually start learning from the mistakes of the past rather than being condemned to repeat them in the future?” he asked.
“All but 16 members of the official opposition supported the war, many in my party voted against, indeed members here on all benches voted against the war, but none of us should take any satisfaction from that. We have to be saddened as to what has been revealed.” Related: Now Chilcot says it too: we did not ‘sex up’ intelligence in the WMD dossier | Alastair Campbell
The Labour leader campaigned against the Iraq war and suggested last year that he would apologise on behalf of his party for Tony Blair’s actions. Cameron said it was not possible for planning to be foolproof. “What John Chilcot says about the failure to plan is very, very clear,” he said.
Related: Chilcot report live: Corbyn suggests parliament should act against Blair after inquiry says case for war exaggerated
On Tuesday, Corbyn did not attack Blair personally but paid tribute to the former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who resigned over the decision to go to war, and who died in 2005.
“He said in a few hundred words what this report has said in millions of words,” Corbyn said. “The Chilcot report has rightly dug deep into the litany of failures, the calamitous decision to stand down the Iraqi army and the dismantling of the Iraqi state.
“The reality is it was the original decision to follow the US president into the war, one of the most volatile regions in the world, and impose a colonial-style occupation that led to every other disaster.”
Corbyn did not mention Blair by name in his statement but heavily implied that he felt the former prime minister had given incorrect information to parliament.
“We now know that the house was misled in the run-up to the war and the house must now decide how to deal with it 13 years later, just as all those who took the decisions laid bare in the Chilcot report must face up to the consequences of their actions, whatever they may be,” he said.
Earlier, Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, asked when lessons would be learned about planning, citing not just Iraq but Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and also Brexit. “When will the UK government actually start learning from the mistakes of the past rather than being condemned to repeat them in the future?” he asked.
Related: Chilcot report: key points from the Iraq inquiry
Cameron said it was not possible for planning to be foolproof. “What John Chilcot says about the failure to plan is very, very clear,” he said. He cited the national security council set up by the coalition government after the 2010 election as an example of new methods of decision-making.
“There is actually no set of arrangements and plans that can provide perfection in any of these cases,” he went on. “We can argue whether military intervention is ever justified, and I think it is, but planning for the aftermath is always difficult. I don’t think in this house we should be naive in any way that there’s a perfect set of plans that can solve these problems in perpetuity. There aren’t.”“There is actually no set of arrangements and plans that can provide perfection in any of these cases,” he went on. “We can argue whether military intervention is ever justified, and I think it is, but planning for the aftermath is always difficult. I don’t think in this house we should be naive in any way that there’s a perfect set of plans that can solve these problems in perpetuity. There aren’t.”
The prime minister said some lessons from Iraq, particularly the decision-making in government and the rapidly apparent failure of post-invasion planning, had already been learned. Margaret Beckett, who was in Blair’s cabinet during the invasion, appeared close to tears as she said those who voted for the war “are responsible and should take responsibility for our own individual decisions, albeit taken in good faith on the basis of evidence before us”.
“We now have a set of conventions and a set of arrangements that put the country in a stronger position,” he said. “I think it is now the clear convention that we have a vote in this house, of course we did on Iraq, before pre-meditated military action but I think it is also right we have a properly constituted national security council, proper receipt of legal advice, a summary of the legal advice provided to the house, like we did both in the case of Libya and Iraq. But Beckett said it was also important to stress that “the men of hatred and death in al-Qaeda and Daesh-Isil [Islamic State] should take responsibility for their actions and for the blood and horror they inflict on others”.
“I think these are growing up to be a set of conventions that will work for our country but let me repeat again, even the best rules and conventions in the world doesn’t mean you’re going to be confronted with easy decisions or ones that don’t have very difficult consequences.” Cameron said he agreed. “I speak as someone who as a relatively new backbencher sitting up there, listening to the arguments and coming to my own conclusions, and I think that anyone who voted for the conflict should take their share of responsibility.
“I don’t choose to go back and say ‘well, if I knew then what I know now … ’ and all the rest of it. I just think you make a decision, you defend it at the time and then you have to live with the consequences and bear your share of responsibility, that’s certainly the position I take.”