TONY Blair did long-term damage to trust in politics when he put forward a case for war that went beyond the "facts of the case", the author of the scathing official report into the Iraq War has said.
Sir John Chilcot, who has remained silent on the report since its publication in July, told a panel of senior MPs be believed it would take many years to repair the harm the former prime minister's actions had caused.
After an inquiry lasting seven years, the Chilcot Report found that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein posed ''no imminent threat'' at the time of the invasion of his country in 2003, and the war was unleashed on the basis of ''flawed'' intelligence.
Its publication led to calls for the prosecution of Mr Blair, but the former British prime minister insisted that, while he felt sorrow for those whose loved ones died, he stood by his decision to commit Britain to the US-led military action.
Asked if trust in politics had been corroded because MPs were told things that could not reasonably be supported by the evidence, Sir John told the House of Commons Liaison Committee: "I think when a government or the leader of a government presents a case with all the powers of advocacy that he or she can command, and in doing so goes beyond what the facts of the case and the basic analysis of that can support, then it does damage politics, yes."
He told MPs he "can only imagine" it would take a long time to repair the trust.
Sir John said Mr Blair's decision to describe the threat the Hussein regime posed as imminent had been the "best possible inflection" of the evidence he had.
"A speech was made in advocate's terms and putting the best possible inflection on the description that he used," he said.
