Lib Dems: Voted against war

Charles Kennedy has said voters will be right not to trust the prime minister after seeing the attorney general's legal advice on Iraq.

The Liberal Democrat leader said on Thursday that Lord Goldsmith's opinion should have been shared with parliament and the public at the time of going to war in 2003.

"If Tony Blair couldn't trust his own Cabinet with the full facts, if he couldn't trust the Commons, then why should the country trust him on May 5?" he asked.

However, he slammed the Conservatives for trying to capitalise on the publication of the government documents by calling Tony Blair a "liar", when the Opposition had backed the war.

"Michael Howard's Tories have prejudged and misjudged over Iraq every step of the way," Kennedy claimed.

"They prejudged and misjudged the case for war. They prejudged and misjudged the Hutton inquiry. They prejudged and misjudged the Butler inquiry.

"They are every bit as guilty and culpable as the government. They must not be allowed to distract attention from their own uncritical support for the war.

"This issue must not be about which party leader can throw more personal insults at another party leader. The real insult is to the intelligence of the British electorate. I refuse to descend to that level - the issue is of far too much importance.

"The Cabinet, the Commons and the country are entitled to feel seriously misled."

Leaks

Earlier, as leaks showed that 10 days before his final decision in March 2003, Lord Goldsmith still wanted a second UN resolution to justify the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Liberal Democrat leader asked: "What changed?"

Kennedy said the leaked document "does not square with the subsequent claims of the prime minister that there was no material shift between the initial advice tended by the attorney general, and the ultimate public advice, by means of a written parliamentary answer, 10 days earlier".

"He has to answer that charge. We are now faced with this confirmation that over that period of 10 days the advice of the attorney did change significantly from his initial analysis," Kennedy said.

"Therefore it is imperative now, for once and for all, that Tony Blair comes clean with the British public as to what transpired during the course of those 10 days to bring about that alteration and to vindicate - as he would have it - his political judgment on the war."

"Lawyers do change their minds but on a matter of his importance, if you do change your mind you have an overwhelming obligation to set out your reasoning in such detail as to allow people to understand why you have changed your mind," he said.

Language

But Kennedy again refused to echo Conservative attacks on Blair as a "liar".

"The Conservatives quite frankly haven't got a leg to stand on shouldn't be allowed to obscure the fact that they were the principal cheerleaders for war," he said.

"I'm not using that vocabulary. I am not going to start confusing what we are saying about this with [Conservative] efforts, and allow people to forget the fact that they signed up hook, line and sinker for this."

But he added: "On face value that is a seriously misleading account.

"I want the facts and a full statement, and a proper account from the prime minister."