In a dramatic day at the inquiry, which Blair will face on Friday, Jack Straw's chief legal adviser at the time of the Iraq invasion also today told the inquiry that the then foreign secretary overruled his advice against military action. The revelation by Sir Michael Wood, the top Foreign Office lawyer at the time, challenges the evidence Straw, now justice secretary, gave to the inquiry last week in which he insisted that he had "very reluctantly" supported the conflict.Wilmshurst, who was the only civil servant to quit over the Iraq war, is the first witness to reveal that Goldsmith's view as late as January 2003 was that a second UN resolution may be required for the invasion to be legal. She said she thought it was unprecedented for a prime minister to be consulted in this way.
Amid ongoing disruptions to maritime shipping in the Middle East due to the closure of the...
