Paul Flynn, British Labour Party MP for Newport West in Wales told Sputnik the Chilcot report, despite being a long time coming, "is a splendid report" into "an act of vanity by a self-indulgent prime minister."
"It identifies the atrocious decision made by Tony Blair and the government at the time to go to war — Blair had certainly sexed up the evidence and there were examples of that," Flynn told Sputnik.
Organised pre-Chilcot distraction storm dies down. Let's concentrate on truth & closure for the bereaved families. https://t.co/yQTDNToqFq
— Paul Flynn (@PaulFlynnMP) July 3, 2016
The report was critical of his government's acceptance of flawed intelligence reports of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and of its failure to prepare militarily and strategically for the effects of invasion.
One of the most devastating passages in #Chilcot — Were there any plans for reconstruction at all? pic.twitter.com/SwTko7oAuI
— Chris Doyle (@Doylech) July 7, 2016
Paul Flynn consistently voted against the Iraq war in parliament.
"I wrote Blair a letter at the time; I said if this war goes ahead, it will deepen the sense of injustice felt by Muslims in my local mosque to the far corners of the world and increase terrorism," Flynn said.
"There were so many people and MPs opposed to the war — 139 Labour MPs voted against a three-line whip, more than 20 Tories voted against it — and more than a million people marched in protest."
Flynn praises all the soldiers involved, and says they "did what parliament commanded them to do."
"Britain has among the bravest and the best — and they deserve our praise. But the burden has been placed upon those who lost their loved ones, who with this report, have had to revisit their grief — with the additional pain that their relatives died and unjustified death."
"I thoroughly sympathize with the families' anger at having their grief churned up again. They've been treated badly for the last seven years."
'Manufactured Denial and Delusional Speeches'
After listening to Tony Blair's statement following the publication of the 2.6 million word report and his interviews with British media, Flynn thinks he's a pretty poor actor.
"You could hear the tremble in his voice when he has to talk about his sorrow, it was highly suspicious."
"Blair and Straw had had copies of the report months ago — it was have been hauled over by their advisers and the result was that what came out of Blair's lips was manufactured denial and delusional speeches — the same was what he said in 2003."
#Blair: broken, battered, humiliated, and still lying.
— William Harvey (@WillHarvey91) July 6, 2016
"It is quite clear Blair ignored the sensible advice he was given and was hell bent on becoming best buddies with George Bush."
In a speech to supporters, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn apologized on behalf of his party for the Iraq war. "I think it's absolutely right Jeremy Corbyn apologized for the Iraq war on behalf of the Labour party," Flynn said.
"I voted against it — I marched against it — but parliament approved it at the end of the day and we've got to get parliament right in the future so we don't blunder into yet another futile war again."
