A SOUTH Wales MP attacked Tony Blair last night after the former Prime Minister insisted he was right to invade Iraq.

Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Adam Price, who led efforts to impeach Mr Blair over the 2003 conflict, said the public believed he was a liar.

Mr Blair made his much- anticipated appearance before the Chilcot Inquiry in London yesterday, where he said he had been right to take action to stop Saddam Hussein — even though his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) turned out not to exist.

"The decision I took — and frankly would take again — was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction we should stop him," he said.

"That was my view then, and that is my view now."

Criticising Mr Blair's defiant stance, Mr Price said: "Yet again, he adamantly refused to apologise.

"This man, the Prime Minister, was our leader, and our leaders should not mislead us.

"It's being misled by this man that has created an atmosphere of mistrust in politicians.

"The hole between public and politicians is all down to this man.

"I was thrown out of the Commons for calling Tony Blair a liar — something which the wider public thought too, and still believe.

"We needed to hear the details which led to the invasion of Iraq from the man who led the charge, but what we saw was a constant deflection in his answers."

Mr Blair insisted he had not deceived the nation over the grounds for going to war with Iraq.

He told the inquiry he had made the judgment that Britain should not "run the risk" of allowing Saddam to remain in power.

He said: "This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception. It's a decision.

"And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?"

Llanelli-born Historian Deian Hopkin said the appearance of a former Prime Minister at a public investigation into a war was "unique".

"It's a very important moment historically, but it will not be quite as clear as people expect. You can't always find the secrets of the decision-making process," he said.

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