Attorney General 'misled' Government on legality of Iraq war, Clare Short tells inquiry
"There was never a meeting which said 'What's the problem, what are we trying to achieve, what are our military/diplomatic options?'. We never had that coherent discussion," she said.
She added: "In the case of Iraq, there was secretiveness and deception."
She told the panel that planning for post-conflict Iraq avoided a "humanitarian catastrophe" but she claimed the invasion still had terrible consequences.
"What we did in Iraq was very dangerous, ill-considered and has made Iraq more dangerous and has destroyed lots of property and destroyed lots of people's lives," she said.
Despite her reservations over the conflict, Ms Short said it did not affect her department's planning for the war. She said she was focused on making sure Britain "did it right" after the conflict.
Ms Short said she asked for extra money to prepare for aftermath Iraq but received no reply from the Treasury.
Letters declassified ahead of today's hearing show Ms Short wrote to Mr Blair on March 5, 2003 warning that it would be "impossible" to take a "leading role in humanitarian delivery" without more cash.
She said Gordon Brown, the then Chancellor, was being "marginalised" in the weeks before the invasion.
"Brown was pushed out and marginalised at the time and having cups of coffee with me and saying 'Tony Blair is obsessed with his legacy and he thinks he can have a quick war and then a reshuffle etc'," she said.
She said Mr Brown, in discussions with her, spoke of his concerns over what would happen "beyond Iraq".
"He was worried about what is beyond Iraq," she said. "He would say 'On Iraq, we must uphold the UN'. I would say 'I agree'."
Ms Short was damning about Mr Blair's failure to ask Washington to delay the invasion despite warnings that the military and aid officials were not ready.
She said: "I think he was so frantic to be with America that all that was thrown away. If he had done that, his place in history and the UK's role in the world would have been so much more honourable.
"Britain needs to think about this, the special relationship. What do we mean by it?
"Do we mean we have an independent relationship and we say what we think, or do we mean we just abjectly go wherever America goes and that puts us in the big league? That's a tragedy."
Ms Short also criticised US planners for ignoring predictions that there could be chaos and sectarian fighting after the invasion.
She said: "They believed their own propaganda and the British Government's capacity to think better than that was just subverted and thrown away, to our deep eternal shame."
Ms Short said Mr Blair persuaded her against resigning on the same day as Mr Cook by assuring her that the UN would have the lead role in reconstructing Iraq and that US president George Bush would support the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Asked why she didn't resign earlier, she said: "If I knew then what I know now, I would have."
Ms Short was clapped by the audience in the inquiry chamber after she finished giving her testimony.
The only other witness who has received applause for their evidence is Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a former senior Foreign Office legal adviser who was the only British civil servant to quit over the war.
