Brown ‘had doubts’ over Iraq
Gordon Brown only backed the war in Iraq at the 11th hour, David Blunkett has claimed – and only because he feared being sacked as chancellor.
The latest excerpt from the former home secretary’s memoirs, serialised in The Guardian, reveal major concerns in the cabinet about the way military action – and particularly plans to reconstruct Iraq afterwards – were being planned.
In today’s extract, Mr Blunkett – who resigned as home secretary in December 2004 and as work and pensions secretary a year later – claims Mr Brown was against the war until just five days before MPs voted on military action on March 18th 2003.
On March 13th, the Sheffield Brightside MP recorded in his diary: “Gordon Brown has decided he is coming on board.”
After the government won the House of Commons vote five days later, Mr Blunkett said: “Gordon has made a real effort to bat in this week and I think there’s been a realisation by him that Tony [Blair] isn’t going and that he’s got a choice.
“He either bats in and holds on to the chancellor’s job or he fails to bat in and Tony will take him out when the military action is finished.”
The comments suggest Mr Blunkett – a close ally of the prime minister – believed Mr Brown thought he was going to be sacked if he did not support the war. His reference to Mr Blair’s departure indicates concern that Mr Brown would use the war to take power.
Asked about the claim yesterday, the chancellor said: “I don’t think David Blunkett has ever said such a thing. If he is reported as saying that, he has been entirely misquoted.”
Elsewhere, Mr Blunkett expresses concern about the usefulness of the daily cabinet briefings during the course of the war, fears that were confirmed by Mr Brown.
In entries for the week of March 24th, he said: “[The chancellor] confirmed that we knew more from the media than we were being given at these morning meetings.”
Later that week, Mr Blunkett raised concerns about the strategy to rebuild Iraq after Saddam Hussein was deposed, recording: “We were fighting a 21st-century technological war but with a medieval strategy – ie surrounding the main urban areas and towns, cutting them off but not entering them, and pounding between but over desert.
“At that point Tony got really angry. I think the tiredness may be getting to him. I said: ‘Tony, I am not attacking you. I am trying to work out what we say, what we prepare people for and what they can expect from us, otherwise they only get it from the media.’
“Thank God, John Prescott and John Reid supported me. Eventually Tony said that he was sorry, and that he realised that these were perfectly legitimate questions.”
