Summary

  • UK went to war before peaceful options exhausted and military action was "not last resort", Chilcot report says

  • Invasion in 2003 was based on “flawed intelligence and assessments” that went unchallenged

  • Threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were "presented with certainty that was not justified"

  • Former PM Tony Blair says decision for action made "in good faith" and he takes "full responsibility for any mistakes"

  • Families of Britons killed during Iraq War say conflict was "a fiasco" and do not rule out legal action

  • PM David Cameron says "lessons must be learned" and announces two-day Commons debate next week

  • Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says war was "act of military aggression launched on a false pretence"

Live Reporting

Mario Cacciottolo, Emma Atkinson, Alex Kleiderman and Lauren Turner

  1. Reg Keys: Sir John has 'done families proud'

    Reg Keys

    Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Thomas Keys died in the Iraq War, says he is "amazed at how thorough and incisive the report was". 

    He tells the BBC he had expected "something of a lightweight, Butler-type, Hutton-type report - which were totally ineffective in my book". 

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    He said "the first 12 pages of the report say it all", referring to mentions of flawed intelligence, "cosy meetings" between Tony Blair and George W Bush and "equipment issues".

  2. 'Invasion of Iraq a catastrophe' - Corbyn

    Jeremy Corbyn: 'Invasion of Iraq has been a catastrophe'

  3. Farron: Charles Kennedy 'right all along'

    Speaking in the Commons, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron calls for an apology from those MPs who accused the party's late leader Charles Kennedy of appeasement over his opposition to the Iraq War.

    He said Mr Kennedy "was right all along in leading the opposition across the country against the counter productive war".

    An apology needed to be given to Mr Kennedy's family "to our servicemen and women, to our country and the people of Iraq", said Mr Farron.

    Tim Farron

  4. 'We told Blair there were no WMDs' - Hans Blix

    Hans BlixPA

    Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix was in charge of searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction prior to the invasion.

    He tells the BBC: 

    We carried out about 700 [searches] in 500 different sites before the war broke out, and we didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. We told Mr Blair, and we told the others in the Security Council that we did not find any weapons.

    I had a conversation on the telephone with Mr Blair on the 20th of February 2003, in which I said we were not impressed with intelligence that he had referred to, and I said it would be paradoxical if they invaded Iraq with 250,000 men and found very little.

    But he responded [that] he was very convinced about the national intelligence he had received. Which turned out to be wrong."

  5. How to read the full Chilcot report

    Chilcot report hard copiesReuters

    The full report can be downloaded from the Iraq Inquiry website here.

    An executive summary is available on the site along with Sir John Chilcot's statement and evidence heard during the inquiry.

    The report has also been published in hard copy. The full report consists of 12 volumes and is 2.6 million words long. 

    Anyone wanting to buy a copy will have to pay £767 and contact The Stationery Office, the private firm which has printed the document. A 150-page executive summary, published separately, will cost £30.  

    The BBC has compiled the findings at a glance.

  6. Jack Straw: Consequences will live with me 'for the rest of my life'

    Jack StrawPA

    Former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw said that "with the benefit of hindsight, different decisions would have been made on Iraq, and the inquiry sets out the clear lessons which need to be learnt". 

    The consequences which flow from the decision to take military action against Iraq will live with me for the rest of my life. This is as nothing, however, compared with the grief of all those who lost loved ones in the conflict and its aftermath. They have my deepest sympathies at this very difficult time.

    He adds that "the decisions made by me and others can only properly be judged in the context of the time. I take responsibility for all those that I made".

  7. People were not 'misled' - Campbell

    Alastair Campbell says the Chilcot report shows people were not misled

    Alastair Campbell gives his reaction to the publication of the Chilcot report. 

  8. Saddam 'killed half a million of his people'

    Iain Watson, BBC political correspondent tweets:

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  9. Campbell: 'Blair will agonise over decisions until dying day'

    Alastair Campbell says he saw the care that Tony Blair took over the decisions he made.

    I have seen the agonies it has caused him many times since and will do till his dying day. The deaths of soldiers weigh heavily on him, as do the deaths of Iraqi civilians. He knows there are things he should apologise for. But one thing he will never apologise for is standing up to one of the worst, most fascist dictators the world has ever known. Nor should he.

    Mr Campbell added there were "no lies or deceit, contrary to what Jeremy Corbyn has just said". 

    No secret deal with Bush. A messy process surrounding the legal advice and the role of the UN. Mistakes in intelligence but no improper interference with it. Bad planning for the aftermath. Many mistakes and shortcomings made alongside successes.

    Mr Campbell also states in his blog that he assumes he has not been criticised in the report, adding: "That is four inquiries now which have cleared me of wrongdoing with regard to the WMD dossier presented to Parliament in 2002."

    I hope that the allegations we have faced for years - of lying and deceit to persuade a reluctant Parliament and country to go to war, or of having an underhand strategy regarding the respected weapons expert David Kelly - are laid to rest.

  10. Families react to Chilcot report

    Families of soliders killed in Iraq

    The families of some of the 179 servicemen and women who died in the Iraq War have been reacting to the findings of the Chilcot report.  

  11. Campbell: 'I will be with you, whatever' memo misunderstood

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Commentators were misunderstanding the meaning behind Tony Blair's pre-war "I will be with you, whatever" statement to US President George Bush, his former spokesman says. 

    Alastair Campbell told BBC's Radio 4's World At One: "I don't believe people were misled. Although there is some pretty trenchant criticism of the government and Tony Blair in the report, we can lay to rest allegations of deceit."  

  12. Campbell: 'Blair wanted to avoid war'

    Alastair Campbell says that Tony Blair was "bombarded by views", "acutely aware of protest" and "aware that much could go wrong". 

    He wrote: 

    I was one of the few people who saw the process of his making the decision close up, virtually round the clock, around the world. Far from seeing someone hell-bent on war, I saw someone doing all he could to avoid it.

    Far from seeing someone undermine the UN, I saw him trying his hardest to make it work. Far from seeing someone cavalier about the consequences of war, I saw someone who agonised about them, and I know he still does, as do all who were there, part of his team.

    But, Mr Campbell said, the then prime minister "had to decide", doing so "knowing that either way there were consequences which were hard to foresee". 

  13. 'I will be with you, whatever'

    Extract of memo from Tony Blair to George W Bush

    An extract from one of the memos sent by Tony Blair to George W Bush.

  14. Alastair Campbell: 'Sexing up never happened'

    Alastair CampbellAllsport/Getty Images

    Tony Blair's former spokesman and key government "spin doctor" Alastair Campbell has reacted to the publication of the Chilcot report. 

    He has written a blog post headlined: "Many mistakes yes, but no lies, no deceit, no secret deals, no 'sexing up'. And ultimately a matter of leadership and judgement."

    Mr Campbell wrote:

    The truth was - and remains, confirmed today - that the so called sexing up of intelligence never happened. The Today programme report that said it should never have been broadcast, and the BBC should have properly investigated our complaint rather than dismissed it out of hand because it came from Downing Street.

    Had they done so, David Kelly would almost certainly be alive today, and no attempt by the media to say it was 'six of one, half a dozen of the other' will ever move me from that view, or fully erase the anger I feel at their dishonesty. Sorry, but I feel I have to say that.

    I hope too that one of the main conspiracy theories peddled in the main by former US Ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, that Tony Blair did a secret deal with George Bush at Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, is also laid to rest. There was no secret deal, there was no lying, there was no deceit, there was no 'sexing up' of the intelligence. What there was was a decision, a set of decisions, which ultimately had to be made by the prime minister.

    Mr Campbell went on to say he believes Sir John thinks the Iraq War was "a big misake", but adds: "His report does accept that ultimately leaders have to make decisions, and especially the tough ones."

  15. 'Why did you kill my son?' says Rose Gentle

    Rose Gentle's son Gordon, who was from Glasgow - was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Basra in 2004.

    She said that given the chance, she would look former prime minister Tony Blair in the eye and ask him why he had sent her son to his death.

    Why did you kill my son, send my son to be killed? Because I hold him responsible for the murder of my son.

    Years ago we did ask to meet him and he walked away, so this is his opportunity to come and speak to the families now. We've proved him wrong because everything that we've said from the start has actually came out today, and I think he thought 'they're going to give up and walk away'.

  16. 'Most shameful foreign policy action in decades' - Robertson

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson says the Iraq War was "the UK's most shameful foreign policy action in decades" which left an "indelible stain on Britain's standing in the world".

    He says Sir John Chilcot's statement mentioned that Tony Blair had told George Bush: "I will be with you whatever."

    However, David Cameron did not mention that - and Mr Robertson asks why.

    Mr Cameron says he did mention that Mr Blair made "commitments that were not discussed with cabinet colleagues".

    Angus Robertson

  17. 'Families owed apologies over Iraq war'

    A Chinook helicopter hovers above British soldiers in Iraq in 2003AFP

    Families of soldiers killed in the Iraq war deserve apologies from government, a retired Army captain says.

  18. Findings 'justify widespread public anger'

    Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said the 100,000 people who marched in Glasgow in 2003 against the war had been proved correct.  

    "Chilcot makes clear that peaceful options had not been exhausted, the legal basis for invasion was not satisfactory, the intelligence was flawed and that the risks of unleashing terrorism were clear before the invasion took place," he says.

  19. 'Huge lessons for every single one of us' - Corbyn

    House of Commons
    Parliament

    Jeremy Corbyn

    "There are huge lessons for every single one of us here today," says Jeremy Corbyn at the close of his response to the Chilcot report.

    The House of Commons should learn not to take military action without realising the consequences will last for years to come, he argues.

  20. 'House was misled' pre-Iraq war, says Jeremy Corbyn

    Jeremy Corbyn

    Jeremy Corbyn has just finished speaking in the House of Commons. Part of his statement said: 

    We now know that the House was misled in the run up to the war, and the House must now decide how it should deal with it 13 years later.

    Just as all those who took the decisions laid bare in the Chilcot report must face up to the consequences of their actions, whatever they may be.