Everyone's getting very excited this morning over Jeremy Corbyn's promise—made in a statement to the Guardian—to apologise for the Iraq war. In a way, it's easy to see why. As the Chilcot inquiry report is delayed and delayed, Iraq stays in the headlines, while 53 per cent of the public think the decision to invade was wrong, according to YouGov. An apology, Corbyn's camp argue, might win back many of the voters lost to his party following Tony Blair's ill-advised adventure. Blair has repeatedly refused to apologise for his decision.
But whatever Blair's view of the situation, Labour under Ed Miliband has already said it was wrong for invading Iraq. So have some of the key figures who supported the invasion. Corbyn's position will garner support from new recruits who may not have been paying attention for previous mea culpas, but it's hard to argue that it marks a serious departure.
Here are some examples of Labour's contrition over Iraq:
Ed Miliband, speaking in his first leader's speech at conference in 2010:
"I do believe that we were wrong. Wrong to take Britain to war and we need to be honest about that. Wrong because that war was not a last resort, because we did not build sufficient alliances and because we undermined the United Nations. America has drawn a line under Iraq and so must we."
Yvette Cooper in 2010 as Shadow Foreign Secretary:
"There were no weapons of mass destruction...we have to recognise that and move on from that"
Yvette Cooper in 2015 as a leadership candidate and rival to Corbyn:
“[The party was] wrong over Iraq—both on the initial decision, because there were no weapons of mass destruction, and on the strategy afterwards...That makes it immensely important that the full Chilcot inquiry is now published so we can face up to what went wrong.”
John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister at the time of the invasion, speaking in 2013 when he was a peer:
"And I have to be part in that—I can't just disown it. I go through my thoughts trying to justify it, but that's... it cannot be justified as an intervention."
Lord Falconer, former Lord Chancellor and a key pre-war Blair ally in 2015:
“We weren't right to go in”
Asked by whom it was thought that the Iraq war was a mistake, Lord Falconer said: "By Labour, by Tony Blair."
Update:
Some people are being quite funny on the #CorbynApologises hashtag:
Jeremy Corbyn to apologise for the way @serial ended #corbynapologies— Luke McGee (@lukemcgee) August 21, 2015
Corbyn to apologise for comic sans font #corbynapologies— Spider (@lurkingspider) August 21, 2015
Jeremy Corbyn to apologise for Jar Jar Binks— Chris Deerin (@chrisdeerin) August 21, 2015
