Downgraded by Blair, Cook quit over Iraq

ROBIN COOK was an unspectacular foreign secretary and a popular leader of the House of Commons, who dramatically resigned from the British government in March 2003 as a protest about the impending war against Iraq.

After the death of then Labour leader John Smith in 1994, Mr Cook was widely regarded as the best political brain in the British Labour Party. But in an age in which appearance seemed to count for more than ability, he was never seriously in the running as Mr Smith’s successor.

Despite his undoubted political acumen, Mr Cook was regarded as no more than an indifferent foreign secretary and Tony Blair removed him from that post after Labour’s 2001 general election victory and “downgraded” him to leader of the House of Commons.