Iraq: I Wouldn't Have Backed Blair - Howard [View All]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3220090

Tory leader Michael Howard said tonight that he would not have backed the Government in the crucial Commons vote on the Iraq war if he had known that the intelligence was flawed.

His comments, in an interview with the Sunday Times, come after the Butler Report found that the intelligence on Iraq’s banned weapons – described by Mr Blair as “detailed, extensive and authoritative” – was in fact “sporadic and patchy”.

Mr Howard said that he could not have supported the Government motion because it referred to Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction and long range missiles” posing “a threat to international security”.

“If I knew then what I know now, that would have caused a difficulty. I couldn’t have voted for that resolution,” he said.

“If you look at the terms of the actual motion put to the House of Commons on March 18, it placed very heavy emphasis on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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