I totally stand by what happened, says former defence minister

Ivor Caplin, who was also Hove MP and defence minister at the time Britain invaded Iraq, yesterday told The Argus he stood by his decision to support the war.

Like the Prime Minister Tony Blair he dutifully followed and acted as a government whip for, Mr Caplin also failed to apologise specifically for the decision.

He said: “I stand totally by what happened before.

“Do I have regrets? No. My only regret is that British troops lost their lives and a number of thousand Iraqis lost their lives, but significantly less than those murdered by Sadam’s regime.”

He went on to say: “If a decision is made by government in accordance with the UN and parliament then British men and women carry out the decision of the government as is their duty.”

Many of Mr Caplin’s constituents were enraged when he refused to accept a 1,000-signature petition against the war – sparking regular demonstrations outside his office mainly by Hove Action for Peace.

Mr Caplin’s comments followed condemnation of Tony Blair’s government and MPs who supported the decision to invade Iraq.

Retired Army captain Doug Beattie said: “We can vilify Tony Blair, and his legacy is toxic on this issue, but he was not the only person who was responsible for this catastrophe.

“Others who did not cover themselves in glory include the Foreign Office, the Home Office, the Labour cabinet of the day, [and] many MPs allowed themselves to be misled and voted for war.”

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas said yesterday: “Every MP who closed their ears and eyes to the facts and voted for the war should now publicly apologise.”

MY ONLY REGRET IS THAT TROOPS AND THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS DIED

Argus chief reporter Emily Walker spoke to Ivor Caplin, former defence minister and Hove MP at the time of Britain's invasion of Iraq, on the day of Chilcot report findings

How damning is the Chilcot report?

I think in general terms and listening to the comments this morning it is clear that there was no deceit and decisions were made in good faith.

Do you regret supporting the war or wish you’d made decisions differently?

I’m not a flip-flop politician. If hindsight and later actions prove they were wrong, it doesn’t mean the decision was wrong.

I stand totally by what happened before.

Do I have regrets? No. My only regret is that British troops lost their lives and a number of thousand Iraqis lost their lives, but significantly less than those murdered by Saddam’s regime.

This report says post 9/11 your government was too close to the US and prepared to do anything with them. Did you create enough distance to make an independent judgement?

Post 9/11, after the worst terrorist atrocity the world had seen, there was obviously going to be a close relationship with the US.

It was our influence with the US that got them to go back to the UN Security Council.

Our influence pressured the US to give us a little bit more time.

Why did you not question the intelligence hard enough? Do you accept now that the whole basis for voting to go to war was faulty? The severity of the threat Iraq posed was presented with a certainty that was not justified in Sir John Chilcot’s words.

I think everyone accepts there could have been more. But there was no deceit of Parliament and no sexing up of documents. It was a binary decision made at that time on March 18, 2003.

Did you ask enough questions about the evidence?

I do think I looked into it thoroughly enough.

There certainly was the opportunity to ask questions.

And when I was at the Ministry of Defence from 2003 I had access to lots of information and went to Iraq. I spent a significant amount of time there.

Did you too blindly follow the lead of Tony Blair in your role as a whip? Why didn’t you do more to get answers from Mr Blair?

A government is a collective, not a group of individuals.

This was a policy decision with the support of the government and the cabinet.

There was plenty of time for people to make their voices heard. I absolutely feel there was regular debate.

Do you still feel you represented the views of your constituents at the time?

An MP is not representative of an entire constituency, I represented a broad swathe of constituency views. If you are a member of a government you have to accept responsibility for that.

In coming to my decision, I made my views known.

Everyone in Hove and Portslade knew my views and they were perfectly entitled to peaceful protest, which they did. That doesn’t make my position wrong.

What would you say to the families of Jonathan Carlos Bracho-Cooke, of Hove, John Rigby, from Rye, Paul Connolly, of Crawley, and the other 176 British soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq?

I have always said I regret the deaths of British servicemen and women in action, not just in Iraq.

I personally had to take on that in my role at the Ministry of Defence.

But if a decision is made by government in accordance with the UN and Parliament, then British men and women carry out the decision of the government as is their duty.

As defence minister did you not let the troops down by the lamentable level of preparation for war and then failing to supply the weapons with which to go about their task?

In terms of planning for what might happen and what the troops needed, I absolutely 100 per cent agree we could have done more.

One of the reasons I went to Iraq was not just to talk to the troops and aid workers but to see what the commanders needed on the ground.

Our visit there did change things.