Corbyn prepares to call for Tony Blair to be investigated for war crimes when Chilcot Inquiry report is released
Peace campaigner said the Chilcot Inquiry report will tell us what 'we already know'
JEREMY Corbyn is prepared to call for Tony Blair to be investigated for alleged war crimes during the Iraq War, according to reports.
The Chilcot report into the conflict will be released on July 6 and is expected to be pretty damning about the former Labour Prime Minister.
And it is understood the current Labour leader will not back down from the calls he made last year for Blair to stand trial for war crimes if it is found he took Britain into Iraq illegally.
Last summer Corbyn said Blair will have to ‘explain’ his involvement in the Iraq war once the Inquiry is published.
On the leadership election campaign trail he was asked if Blair should be charged for war crimes and he replied: "If he's committed a war crime, yes. Everyone who's committed a war crime should be."
Corbyn added: "I think it was an illegal war, I'm confident about that, indeed [former UN secretary general] Kofi Annan confirmed it was an illegal war, and therefore he has to explain to that.
"Is he going to be tried for it, I don't know. Could he be tried for it? Possibly."
And during a lecture at the London School of Economics last Tuesday, the longstanding peace campaigner and Blair critic said the Chilcot report ‘will tell us what we already know’.
He said this included Saddam Hussein having no weapons of mass destruction, no ability to strike within 45 minutes, and that Blair agreed a deal to support military action ‘in advance’.
Blair has always denied he did a deal with George W. Bush at the President’s Crawford ranch in 2002 – months before the war started.
Other people expected to be criticised include the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Sir Richard Dearlove, who was the head of MI6.
Daily Telegraph reports a former UK Government insider with knowledge of the Chilcot inquiry’s deliberations said: “It will be absolutely brutal for Straw.
“The build-up to war is very crucial.
“It will damage the reputations of a number of people, Richard Dearlove as well as Tony Blair and others.
“But there is a second half. The report will say that we really did make a mess of the aftermath.”
Mr Straw is expected to be criticised about the inexperienced Foreign Office staff that were sent in to run the civilian administration in Iraq and the lack of resources given to them.