The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
397.
Mr Blair
saw both Mr Cook and Ms Short before Cabinet on 13 March
to
discuss
their concerns.
398.
Mr Campbell
wrote in his diaries that, in the context of preparations for
meetings
with
Mr Cook and Ms Short:
“JP [John
Prescott] emphasised how important it was to make clear today
was
not the
final Cabinet before any action, that there would be another one if
the UN
process
collapsed. The political argument that we needed now was that the
French
had made it
more not less likely that there would be conflict. This was the way
some
of our MPs
could come back … Jack [Straw] agreed to go out and do clips [for
the
media] on
the French.”122
399.
Mr Cook
wrote in his memoir that he told Mr Blair before Cabinet on 13
March that
his mind
was made up (to resign if the UK went ahead without a second
resolution), but
he would
not make a public move while Blair was “still working for a result
at the UN”.123
400.
Mr Cook
wrote that his impression was that Mr Blair was “mystified as
to quite how
he had got
into such a hole and baffled as to whether there was any way out
other than
persisting
in the strategy that has created his present
difficulties”.
401.
In relation to
press reports that Mr Blair had told Mr Duncan Smith that
he now
thought a
second resolution “very unlikely”, Mr Cook also
wrote:
“Since the
fiction that Tony still hopes to get a second resolution is central
to his
strategy
for keeping the Labour Party in check, it is not welcome news that
IDS has
told the
world that not even Tony believes this.”
402.
Following Ms
Short’s interview with the BBC’s
Westminster
Hour on
9 March,
Mr Chakrabarti
had written to Sir Andrew Turnbull on 11 March to explain
Ms Short’s
403.
Mr Chakrabarti
described Ms Short’s concerns as:
•
The process
of trying to obtain the second resolution “prior to military
action
should be
fair and transparent”. “That would include no undue pressure on
the
smaller SC
members; allowing enough time (perhaps until the end of
March)
after
voting on a new resolution for the process of an ultimatum to run
its course;
an
objective judgment about whether Iraq had complied with any
ultimatum
122
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to
Iraq. Hutchinson,
2012.
123
Cook
R. The Point
of Departure. Simon
& Schuster UK Ltd, 2003.
124
Letter
Chakrabarti to Turnbull, 11 March 2003, ‘Iraq’.
470