Tony Blair: I didn't bully Lord Goldsmith

Tony Blair broke his silence since the start of the Iraq inquiry to defend his controversial decision to topple Saddam Hussein.

In a defiant television ­interview, Mr Blair stood by his decision to back George Bush, saying: “If you can’t stand the heat, don’t come into the kitchen.”

Mr Blair spoke out amid fresh claims that the then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith warned him eight months before the invasion that it would breach international law.

The former Labour leader was asked whether it was true that Lord Goldsmith had been ­“bullied into being quiet”.

“No, it’s not,” he replied.

Lord Goldsmith had written a letter in July 2002 spelling out that “regime change” would not be legal in the absence of a UN resolution. That letter was among ­evidence handed to the inquiry chaired by Sir John Chilcot.

It is due to ­question Mr Blair about his role in the new year.

Sir David Manning, his former senior foreign policy adviser, told the inquiry panel yesterday that Mr Blair asked for war plans to be secretly drawn up in June 2002 – a year before the ­invasion.

He also disclosed that SDHp President Bush and Mr Blair first discussed a possible link between Saddam and the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the US just three days after 9/11.

Commenting on the telephone conversation between the two men, Sir David said: “The Prime Minister’s response was that the evidence would have to be very compelling indeed to ­justify ­taking any action against Iraq.”

It has been claimed that the Attorney General had been “pinned against the wall” by Mr Blair’s allies after expressing doubts over the legality of a war.

His July 2002 letter warned that the UN charter permitted “military intervention on the basis of self-defence”, but that did not apply to Saddam because Britain was not under threat from Iraq. Mr Blair is alleged to have not only ignored Lord ­Goldsmith’s letter, but to have also banned him from Cabinet meetings.

The Attorney General reportedly threatened to resign.

Lord Goldsmith later issued a new legal opinion which claimed the war did, after all, have legal authority because it was authorised by a UN resolution passed unanimously in November 2002.

In his CNN interview, Mr Blair declined to elaborate after denying he bullied Lord Goldsmith.

He added: “I have been through these issues many, many times over the past few years and I’m very happy to go through them again. But I think probably the appropriate place to do that is in front of the inquiry.”