Chilcot ‘won’t say’ if he thinks Blair broke law with Iraq war

ASSISTANT POLITICAL EDITOR SIR JOHN CHILCOT will refuse to reveal if he thinks Tony Blair broke the law over Iraq when he appears before MPs on Wednesday, according to wellplaced sources.

Answering questions for the first time since his report was published, Sir John is expected to say that commenting on the legality of the invasion is outside his remit.

He will also rebut attempts by MPs to reveal whether Mr Blair and other senior Labour figures watered down key criticisms in his report, sources said.

The stance is likely to infuriate the families of soldiers killed in Iraq, who have commissioned lawyers to look into whether Mr Blair could be sued for his decisions.

Sir John’s long-delayed report into the 2003 Iraq war was published this summer and gave a critical assessment of decision-making before the invasion. The report says: “The circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action were far from satisfactory.”

The comment gave hope to critics who believed it opened the door to take Mr Blair to court for war crimes, but others noted it did not directly comment on the invasion’s legality.

Sir John will argue that he is not a judge and his inquiry’s remit did not include taking a decision on the legality of the war, according to one source.

Reg Keys, whose son was killed in the war, said: “Somebody needs to be held to account for their actions or else we never learn.”