Prescott testifies at Iraq inquiry

Former British deputy prime minister Lord Prescott is appearing before the Iraq inquiry in London today.

Former British deputy prime minister Lord Prescott is appearing before the Iraq inquiry in London today.

Lord Prescott rejected evidence to the inquiry by former MI5 director general Baroness Manningham-Buller, who said she had made clear before the war that there was no terrorist threat from Iraq.

“She was on the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) committee that produced the document that was used by the prime minister to say ‘This is a threat’,” Mr Prescott said.

He acknowledged that after the invasion in 2003 she had warned of the increased danger of a terrorist attack, but suggested she was simply trying to obtain additional funding for MI5.

READ MORE

“She was always on about the threat of terrorism. Along with it came ‘Please give me more money’,” he said.

Mr Prescott said he had a “unique position” in the Government, meeting former prime minister Tony Blair privately two or three times a week, when they discussed developments on Iraq.

He said on one occasion Mr Blair had invited him to take part in one of his video conferences with former US president George Bush.

“He did say to me ‘Don’t be worried about his language’ I don’t think he meant the swearing but the style and aggression that would be involved. I must say listening to it I now know what he means,” he said.

He acknowledged he was part of Mr Blair’s so-called “sofa government” style, when many of the key decisions were taken at informal meetings with key ministers and advisers.

Asked by Sir Roderic Lyne: “Were you on the sofa in the first half of 2002?”

Lord Prescott replied: “I was on the sofa all the time.”

However he said Mr Blair never told him if he had privately given a commitment to Mr Bush in 2002 that Britain would join the US if it went to war in Iraq.

“I don’t know, I have to say honestly,” he said. “He never did tell me if he had come to any agreement.”

Lord Prescott said he believed it had been wrong for the British government to blame French president Jacques Chirac for the breakdown of negotiations in the United Nations Security Council in 2003.

“I think the poor old French got blamed for a lot of it. You can make a judgment by what Chirac meant by his comments,” he said.

“The French easily come to mind in the Brits’ mind when we want to blame people. There is a lot of history for that.”

Former attorney general Lord Goldsmith was “not a very happy bunny” before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, when Mr Blair was asking him to find a legal case for the war, the inquiry heard.

Lord Prescott said Lord Goldsmith had “a lot of weight on his shoulders” at this time.

He said: “Anybody seeing Peter (Goldsmith) all through this process, he was not a very happy bunny. He knew there were difficult situations. He knew the interpretation may well be difficult. But at the end of the day he would have to make a judgment.”

He added: “His demeanour... he had a lot of weight on his shoulders having to give a decision. Everybody is coming up to him and saying ‘Hey Peter, is it legal?”’

Lord Goldsmith eventually presented Mr Blair, on March 7th, 2003, with a 13-page legal opinion which said a “reasonable case” could be made for attacking Iraq without further UN Security Council support.

But the attorney general warned that British ministers and troops could face legal action over the war.

Lord Prescott said he did not think the Cabinet should have been shown Lord Goldsmith’s detailed advice on the legality of the conflict, including its caveats.

“They [Cabinet Ministers] only want to know whether it’s legal or not.

“Reasonable? There are whole books in law devoted to what’s reasonable," he said. "All I wanted to know, and I think the Cabinet and the prime minister, is is it legal and can you legally justify military intervention? He said ‘Yes’.”

Lord Prescott was asked about a reference in former Number 10 communications director Alastair Campbell’s diaries to him complaining in January 2003 about ministers “talking out of the side of their mouths”.

He said this was not a reference to then-international development secretary Clare Short, who resigned over the Iraq war after the invasion.

“Clare was not so much out of the side of the mouth - she was direct out front. That was the nature of Clare,” he said.

Reuters