Posted 4:40 AM by Dil
Another ex-minister dismisses Blair's war claims

Government claims that war on Iraq was justified by the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction have been dismissed as "fantasy" by another ex-minister.

Former environment minister Michael Meacher said he backed Tony Blair in the run-up to war because he believed what the Prime Minister was saying.

But the US-UK coalition's failure to find evidence of WMD in the 12 weeks since the fall of Baghdad suggests that the warnings were "over-egged", he said.

Mr Meacher has told the BBC: "I support (former Foreign Secretary) Robin Cook in what he's been saying about the Iraqi dossier and the intelligence services.

"The ostensible reason for going to war, the public reason, has turned out to be uncertain, unreal, fantasy, and we're still not absolutely sure what the intelligence services actually did say."

At the time of the war debate, Mr Meacher said he "believed what the intelligence services and the Government were saying" when they claimed Saddam possessed WMD capabilities that could threaten UK interests.

"Tony Blair made speeches in which he said that with great categorical certainty, and who am I to disbelieve that?" he asked.

"Whose fault was that? Who over-egged the information?"