Tony Blair appeared emotional, sounded hoarse, and constantly fixated upon his belief that he acted in ‘good faith’ over Iraq when he responded to the Chilcot report this afternoon. The former Prime Minister spoke or took questions for two hours, and started by saying that he accepted ‘full responsibility, without exception and without excuse’. But he also made clear that he disagreed with Chilcot’s findings that the decision to invade Iraq could have been delayed.
The key feature of the long press conference, though, was Blair ruminating constantly on whether he had acted in good faith when taking the decision to go to war. He seems tortured by this question, and more specifically by the fear that people don’t believe that he meant well when he did what he did. It’s almost as though the criticisms about poor planning and lax Whitehall discipline mean very little next to the suggestion that in his heart of hearts, his motives are wrong.
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