Tony Blair is to be officially blamed over his decision to involve Britain in the disastrous Iraq War,

Tony Blair is to be officially blamed over his decision to involve Britain in the disastrous Iraq War, it was reported yesterday.

The Chilcot Inquiry is expected to lay out four main criticisms of his conduct.

Top of the list will be the bogus claims that were made about Saddam Hussein’s access to weapons of mass destruction.


Buddies: President Bush and Tony Blair, pictured at Camp David in the U.S. in 2002

The former prime minister will be held to account over keeping his own Cabinet in the dark with his ‘sofa government’ style.

He is set to be castigated for not telling the British public about his secret pledge with George Bush to go to war.

 

And it is believed he will be criticised over his failure to plan for post-war chaos in Iraq once Saddam had been overthrown.

The report by Sir John Chilcot, former permanent secretary at the Northern  Ireland Office, is due out later this year.


Last night Mr Blair hit back at claims that the inquiry would blame him for  the fiasco.

A source close to him said: ‘This is a deliberate attempt to pre-judge a report that hasn’t even been written yet.’

A total of 179 British soldiers died in the Iraq War of 2003, while more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the chaos  that followed.

The Chilcot Inquiry was set up by  Gordon Brown two years ago. It is the third probe into the war, after the Butler Inquiry into intelligence failings and  the Hutton Inquiry into the death of  David Kelly.

It will also criticise former foreign secretary Jack Straw and ex-spin doctor Alastair Campbell, the Mail on Sunday reported yesterday.

The report has not yet been written, but over the next few weeks, all those taken  to task will receive notice of the  inquiry’s conclusions.

It is understood that Sir John Chilcot will attack Mr Blair for telling Parliament that intelligence suggesting Saddam had WMDs was ‘beyond doubt’.

The inquiry will criticise the Downing Street dossier, published on 24 September 2002, which included the claim that  Iraq could launch a WMD attack in  45 minutes.

It will also attack Mr  Campbell, who denied the  dossier on Saddam’s weapons was designed to ‘make the case for war’.

Sir John was apparently impressed with evidence from Major-General Michael Laurie, from the Defence Intelligence Agency, who told the inquiry: ‘Alastair Campbell said the purpose of the dossier was not “to make a case for war”.

‘I had no doubt at the time that this was exactly its purpose and these very words were used.


Findings: Sir John Chilcot's report is due out later this year

‘We knew at the time that its purpose was precisely to make a case for war, rather than setting out the available intelligence.’

Sir John will also take Mr Blair to task over the way he privately told U.S. President George Bush in April 2002 that he would back the war, while claiming in public he had not made up his mind.

Mr Blair has always denied that a deal to go to war had been ‘signed in blood’ in Mr Bush’s Texan ranch.

Mr Straw will be attacked for ignoring warnings from Foreign Office lawyers that the war was illegal.

And Mr Blair’s ‘sofa government’ style, where key decisions were made with key confidants and without the presence of most Cabinet members, will also be criticised.

Former Cabinet secretary Lord Butler told the inquiry panel that Mr Blair ignored his pleas to rely  on traditional Cabinet committees.

The failure to anticipate the post-war turmoil in Iraq is believed to be another part of the inquiry’s conclusions.

Major General Tim Cross had told the inquiry panel that two days before the March 2003 invasion, he had warned Mr Blair there was no ‘coherent postwar plan’, but the conflict went ahead.

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, said: ‘The tapestry of deceit woven by Tony Blair over the past decade has finally unravelled. Despite his best attempts to fudge the issue when he was called to give evidence, the Chilcot inquiry has recognised the former prime minister’s central role in leading the UK into the worst foreign policy disaster in recent history.

‘While no inquiry will ever bring back those lost in Iraq, this comprehensive review by Sir John Chilcot will at least provide some explanation of the decisions which led to the disastrous invasion.’

A spokesman for the Chilcot Inquiry said: ‘We will not  provide a running commentary on the inquiry.’