Insensitive treatment of war widow was an error

THE widow of a Royal Navy commando killed in the Gulf will not be made to pay back part of his salary and give up her home, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday.

Lianne Seymour was devastated when she was told by the Ministry of Defence that she must move out of the house she shared with her husband Ian after he was killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait in the first week of the war.

She was told to reimburse the remainder of his salary, which had been paid into his bank account after the accident because he was not identified immediately.