A former British minister said ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair kept the cabinet in the dark over his plans to invade Iraq in 2003, and the government's former top lawyer misled ministers over the war's legality.

Clare Short, a long-time critic of Blair who was International development secretary at the time, disputed evidence Blair gave last week to an inquiry into the war.
 

Discussions were limited and there had been a "block on communications", Short told the Chilcot inquiry which is examining Britain's role in the war and its aftermath.
 

Short voted in favour of the 2003 invasion but quit Blair's government shortly afterwards.
 

On Friday, Blair made a robust defence of his decision to go to war, saying Saddam Hussein had posed a threat to the world and had to be disarmed or removed.
 

He told the inquiry there had been "substantive discussion" with senior ministers in the cabinet.
 

But Short said she had been excluded from talks and that Blair had not wanted Iraq discussed in the cabinet because he was afraid of leaks to the media.
 

"There was secretiveness and deception on top of that," she said. "Normal communications were being closed down."

Goldsmith accused
Short accused former Attorney General Peter Goldsmith of not telling the cabinet of his doubts about the legality of war, nor that senior Foreign Office lawyers believed it would be illegal without a second UN resolution.
 

Goldsmith has said he initially doubted the war's legality and only concluded it would be lawful without such a resolution a week before the invasion, days before the cabinet was briefed.
 

"I think he misled the cabinet, he certainly misled me, but people let it through," Short said. "I was stunned by his advice."

Pressure by Blair
She told the inquiry she believed Goldsmith had been pressured by Blair, something Goldsmith denies, but had no direct evidence to back this up.
 

Short said there was no imminent threat from Saddam, and said planning for the aftermath of the invasion was inadequate.
 

"There was no reason why it had to be as quick as it was," she said. "It was all done on a wing and a prayer.
 

"We could have gone more slowly and carefully and not had a totally destabilised and angry Iraq into which came al Qaeda which wasn't there before and that would have been safer for the world."
 

Short quit the Labour Party parliamentary group in 2006 to become an independent MP, saying Blair had engaged in deceit over the war.

Source: Reuters