Sorry for the war and that..
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 4:26 am
Much as I'm not keen on Corbyn, that would be one in the eye for Bliar!!
Jeremy Corbyn has said that, if he is elected Labour leader, he will formally apologise on behalf of the party for it taking the country to war with Iraq.
Mr Corbyn told the Guardian that Labour would "never again flout the United Nations and international law".
He said there was no need to wait for the Chilcot inquiry into the war "to know that mistakes were made".
Polls suggest Mr Corbyn is leading the contest ahead of Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.
Mr Corbyn said: "Let us say we will never again unnecessarily put our troops under fire and our country's standing in the world at risk.
"Let us make it clear that Labour will never make the same mistake again, will never flout the United Nations and international law.
"So it is past time that Labour apologised to the British people for taking them into the Iraq War on the basis of deception, and to the Iraqi people for the suffering we have helped cause. Under our Labour, we will make this apology."
He continued: "The endless delay on the Chilcot Inquiry is wrong. But we don't have to wait for Chilcot to know that mistakes were made and we need to make amends."
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Mr Corbyn's rivals pointed out that Ed Miliband said the Iraq War was "wrong" in his first party conference speech as Labour leader in 2010.
BBC political correspondent Chris Mason says it is not surprising the veteran anti-war campaigner would want to do this, hoping it will woo undecided voters in the leadership contest.
When asked on BBC Radio 4's World at One for one thing the Labour administration got wrong, Ms Cooper replied: "Iraq".
She added: "We need the Chilcot report out to know exactly what happened but we were wrong.
"There were no weapons of mass destruction and also the strategy was wrong because it drew resources from Afghanistan at a crucial stage."
Meanwhile, Labour deputy leader candidate Ben Bradshaw reacted on the BBC's Newsnight to concerns that members of other parties have tried to influence the outcome of the leadership race.
New regulations allow members of the public to sign up to vote as a "registered supporter" for £3.
Mr Bradshaw said: "Voting for another party is not a bar to voting in this leadership election. The rules are quite clear about that. What the party is trying to do is test the integrity of the system.
"We welcome these converts. We welcome people who are genuinely Labour. But the party has to satisfy not only the public but long-standing party members.
"I have people in my constituency, life-long Tories who have deliberately signed up as registered supporters to vote in this leadership election. That's not acceptable for any political party."
The new leader will be announced on 12 September.
