Ed Balls: The war in Iraq was wrong

By Jennifer Painter / @jenpainter

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph Ed Balls discusses why he feels Britain should not have engaged with the war in Iraq, stating that it was ‘a mistake’:

“On the information we had, we shouldn’t have prosecuted the war. We shouldn’t have changed our argument from international law to regime change in a non-transparent way. It was an error for which we as a country paid a heavy price, and for which many people paid with their lives. Saddam Hussein was a horrible man, and I am pleased he is no longer running Iraq. But the war was wrong.”

The interview also reveals Balls’ reasoning behind his move to dissuade Gordon Brown from announcing his resignation:

“He’d thought it through by writing down what he planned to do. We discussed it, and I told him I didn’t think it would work. It would look as if he thought he couldn’t do an election campaign when it was vital that we fought to the last day.”

Balls also discusses his thoughts on the new Government and the Labour leadership contest.

Read the full article here.