Iraq heads agenda on Monday
The Iraq war remained at the centre of the political agenda on Monday as election campaigning enters its penultimate week.
This followed from the publication yesterday by the Mail on Sunday of a leaked summary of the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s advice on the war, which claimed that the invasion of Iraq was illegal without UN authorisation. Shortly after this document was produced, it is alleged, Lord Goldsmith changed his mind and declared military action to be legal.
Conservative leader Michael Howard accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of lying about the issue on Sunday, and he refused to back away from this claim on Monday. “I’ve said it before, and I’m afraid, I tell it as it is”, he announced at the party’s morning press conference.
“This is a man who took a stand on just one thing in eight years as Prime Minister – the war on Iraq – and he has not told the truth about that”, Mr Howard went on: “I think it was possible to go to war but to tell the truth, and Mr Blair did not tell the truth.”
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy also latched back onto the issue on Monday. “Iraq does deserve to be a central issue in this general election, not only over what has happened, but equally because of what may come to pass”, he argued.
Mr Kennedy urged anti-war voters to back his party, as the only one consistent in its opposition: “Every Labour candidate should answer for the government’s rush to war. Every Conservative candidate should answer for their party’s supine support.”
At the Liberal Democrats’ daily press briefing, Mr Kennedy called for a public inquiry into the actions and judgements of Ministers in the run-up to the war (full story).
Tony Blair, meanwhile, attempted to brush off the attacks. “The advice was clear that the war was lawful, for the reasons the Attorney General then set out in a parliamentary answer.”
“You can go on forever trying to prove there’s some conspiracy, some plot. There wasn’t. There was a judgment – a judgment that might be right, it might be wrong, but I had to take it”, he contended.
Labour’s campaign theme for the day was the economy once again, focusing this time on urban renewal. Mr Blair, accompanied by Gordon Brown, Patricia Hewitt and John Prescott, argued that Labour has proven its economic competence in government, while the Conservatives’ economic plans threaten this stability (full story).
Mr Brown later addressed the British Chambers of Commerce’s annual meeting, where he reiterated the press conference’s message.
The Tories also looked to focus on the economy, publishing their manifesto for business at the same event (full story).
“Business needs government to ensure the basics. A government that spends within its means. A government that doesn’t take risks by over-spending and over-borrowing. A government that won’t hand over control of our interest rates to the European Central Bank”, Mr Howard told business leaders.
