Bereaved military mothers have urged Boris Johnson to release all secret documents relating to Tony Blair’s wars.
Their call comes after the Mail told how Sir Tony’s own defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, revealed in his memoir that he was ordered to burn a memo warning that invading Iraq could be illegal.
Rose Gentle is a lawyer who seeks to uncover state secrets regarding the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rose was the mother of Gordon, a 19-year old boy killed in a roadside bomb attack in south Iraq.
She is now being backed by five more mums – Carol Valentine, Hazel Hunt, Caroline Whitaker, Caroline Jane Munday-Baker and Helen Perry – who have already written to the Queen, urging her to strip Sir Tony of his knighthood for sending troops to war ‘on a bed of lies’.
Bereaved military mothers have urged Boris Johnson to release all secret documents relating to Tony Blair’s wars
Mrs Gentle said: ‘I have fought so hard to get at the truth all these years, but I have been blocked at every corner. Blair deserves to be in prison for the things he did, and his defense secretary now confirms it. It’s time for Boris Johnson to step up and unlock the secrets of these terrible wars and atone for the hundreds and hundreds of unnecessary deaths and suffering. The truth needs to come out now and the only thing that should be locked up is Blair.’
In his memoir See How They Run, Mr Hoon says his principal private secretary was told by Jonathan Powell, then Sir Tony’s chief of staff, to ‘burn’ advice from attorney general Lord Goldsmith about the Iraq war.
The document was instead locked up by Mr Hoon. But Mrs Valentine, whose son Simon, 29, was killed clearing landmines in Helmand Province in 2009, said: ‘Geoff Hoon needs to apologise for perpetuating Blair’s lies. It’s funny how he thinks it’s appropriate to come clean now as he has a book out.’
Mr Powell this week denied Mr Hoon’s claims – but a source close to the former minister insisted his account was correct. Sir Tony dismissed the burning story as ‘nonsense’ when it emerged in 2015.
Boris Johnson must’step up’ and unlock the secrets to these horrific wars, said one mother.