Blair 'was warned Iraq attack needed UN go-ahead'

Tony Blair was warned two months before the invasion of Iraq it would be illegal to go to war without United Nations’ authority, the inquiry into the conflict heard today.

A slew of newly declassified UK government papers showed Lord Goldsmith, then the attorney general, was initially “pessimistic” that there was sufficient legal basis for military action.

However, after being urged to change his view by the then foreign secretary Jack Straw – who warned against overly “dogmatic” legal advice – he eventually ruled it was lawful.

The inquiry heard how Mr Straw rejected the advice of his senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office, Michael Wood, that an invasion without a UN Security Council resolution specifically authorising military action would be a “crime of aggression”.

Mr Woodl’s deputy Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who resigned in protest on the eve of the invasion in March 2003, described the Government’s treatment of the legal advice as “lamentable”.

The inquiry also heard that No 10 had raised the prospect of going into Iraq without “international legal authority” for the use of force.

The extent of the concerns among Government lawyers will intensify the pressure on both Lord Goldsmith who gives evidence tomorrow and Mr Blair who appears on Friday.