Date set for Tony Blair at Iraq inquiry
Updated on 18 January 2010
It has been announced Tony Blair is to make his long-awaited appearance before the Iraq inquiry on Friday 29 January.
Mr Blair was prime minister when Britain sent 45,000 troops as part of the US-led invasion to get rid of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
It was one of the Labour government's most unpopular decisions. Hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest on the streets of London and in cities around the UK.
Widespread doubts were raised about the invasion's legality, and to this day critics accuse Blair and George W Bush of misleading the public over claims Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
For more Channel 4 News coverage of the Chilcot inquiry
- Does Blair know Iraq inquiry members?
- Iraq inquiry: seats ballot for Blair
- Blair evidence ticket draw
Details of Mr Blair's scheduled appearance were announced on the Iraq inquiry's website earlier. He will spend an entire day answering questions on 29 January.
A ballot will be held to allocate public seats to watch Blair give evidence, while a third of the 60 or so available spaces will be reserved for families of soldiers killed in the conflict.
Gordon Brown set up the inquiry last year following the end of UK operations in Iraq.
The five-man Chilcot team is examining Britain's role before, during and after the conflict. The panel has the power to decide who to call up and when. Its stated aim is to learn lessons from Britain's involvement in the war.
Last week, Tony Blair's former communications chief Alastair Campbell told the inquiry that the prime minister had assured then US president George Bush in 2002 Britain would back military action, if diplomatic efforts to disarm Saddam did not work.
He said: "I think the prime minister was all the way through this trying to get it resolved without a single shot being fired."
But Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff, today told the inquiry Mr Blair had never given an "undertaking signed in blood".
Mr Powell said that in his note to Mr Bush following the meeting at Crawford, Mr Blair was trying to make clear what would be a sensible basis to "go ahead".
He said: "What he was talking about was the danger of unintended consequences. Suppose it became militarily tricky, Iraq suffered unexpected civilian casualties, the Iraqis feeling ambivalent about being invaded."
Mr Blair's appearance will be preceded on Wednesday next week by the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith, who issued the controversial advice that military action against Iraq was legal.
Other key witnesses appearing next week will be Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the former Foreign Office legal adviser who quit in protest at the invasion. She is due to appear on Tuesday.
Two former defence secretaries, Des Browne and John Hutton, will give evidence on Monday while former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett will be appearing on Tuesday.
