When the Commons voted for the final time on the Iraq war, all but 16 Conservative MPs (including Ken Clarke) supported Tony Blair’s government. Events since then have, unsurprisingly, prompted several to recant, and Boris Johnson has become the latest to do so today. In an excoriating Telegraph column, the mayor writes: “The Iraq war was a tragic mistake; and by refusing to accept this, Blair is now undermining the very cause he advocates – the possibility of serious and effective intervention. Blair’s argument (if that is the word for his chain of bonkers assertions) is that we were right in 2003, and that we would be right to intervene again.”
But asked on the Today programme this morning whether he shared the mayor’s contrition, William Hague replied: “I don’t think the invasion itself was a mistake”. The Foreign Secretary limited himself to saying that “mistakes were made” in the aftermath of the war (most obviously the complete dismantlement of the Iraqi state) and noted that he argued long and hard in opposition for a public inquiry.
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