Iraq War Inquiry: Straw 'most robust advice'

Iraq war inquiry: Straw urged Blair to explore alternatives to conflict

Former foreign secretary, who met with Tony Blair eight days before 2003 invasion, tells Chilcot inquiry he owed the prime minister the 'most robust advice'

Jack Straw arrives to give evidence at the Iraq inquiry today. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

2 February 2011 - Jack Straw, the foreign secretary at the time of the invasion of Iraq, urged Tony Blair just a week before the war to "explore all possible alternatives" to conflict, he told the Chilcot inquiry on Wednesday.

Appearing uncomfortable at times during four hours of questioning, he said he felt he owed the prime minister "the best and most robust advice". He went to see Blair on 12 March 2003 for a meeting for which there is no record available.

However, witnesses have told the inquiry that a decision in principle to join the US-led invasion had been taken long before. And Straw was quick to insist that he personally fully endorsed the decision to invade Iraq.

Straw was giving evidence to the inquiry for the third time in the inquiry's final planned public hearing before the Chilcot team gets down to writing its report, which is unlikely to be published before the summer.

The inquiry made clearer than ever that Blair had gone much further in private letters to President Bush than he admitted in public about the prospect of war to topple Saddam Hussein – an aim of military action that Straw said repeatedly in written and oral evidence would be "palpably illegal". {continued}