UK press blasts Tony Blair ‘arrogance’ over Iraq

Tony Blair pleaded with his critics to stop questioning his intentions over Britain’s disastrous war in Iraq, after a blistering verdict by the Chilcot inquiry — but commentators on Thursday showed scant sympathy.

“For his own sanity, he still has to tell himself the world is ‘better and safer’ for him joining George Bush’s assault on Iraq. It is a monumental delusion,” said an editorial in the Sun, Britain’s top-selling paper.

It added: “Blair does admit the post-war planning was a calamity. That is his only concession. He sees no reason to apologise for his decision to go to war and insists he’d do the same again.”

“He still believes he had no choice. You could have said no, Tony.”

After the publication of the long-awaited inquiry report on Wednesday, Mr Blair gave an emotional press conference in which he admitted mistakes but defended his intentions — and said he would do it again.

Newspaper coverage on Thursday was scathing of the former Labour prime minister, who won three elections but stepped down in 2007, as Iraq collapsed into sectarian violence, with his reputation in tatters.

In the left-learning Guardian, commentator Anne Perkins admitted that “it feels cheap at such a time to doubt someone’s sincerity”.

“But I have seen him look stricken before — and like millions of other voters, I don’t trust him any more,” she wrote, adding that he was guilty of “unbowed arrogance”.

Michael Deacon, writing for the Daily Telegraph, noted that Mr Blair refused to apologise. “What to make of it all An honest plea for understanding from a broken man Or a performance, an immaculately executed impersonation of one ” he wrote.