Jeremy Corbyn To Apologise For Iraq War

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Jeremy Corbyn will apologise for the 2003 Iraq War on behalf of the Labour party in his first conference speech as leader.

He is expected to say that Labour has learnt its lesson from the conflict and will “never make the same mistake again”

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The Independent reports:

He will add that in future Britain’s role in international affairs needs to change to the promotion of conflict resolution and co-operation rather than using UK forces to achieve regime change.

An apology will delight Labour activists and be welcomed by some senior members of the parliamentary party who hope it will pre-empt criticisms of former ministers when the Chilcot inquiry finally reports later this year.

“We are urging him to make the apology in his speech. It would be surprising if he did not take the opportunity to do it on Tuesday,” said one Labour MP who supports Mr Corbyn.

But the move will cause disquiet among some in the centre of the party who fear it will reinforce public perceptions that Labour are “soft” on national security. That view is likely to be re-enforced if, as expected, the party decides to hold an emergency debate on whether Labour should support the renewal of Trident during the conference.

Mr Corbyn indicated that he would support a move to debate the issue and has long advocated unilaterally scrapping Britain independent nuclear deterrent.

He has suggested that scrapping Trident would become official policy if a resolution to that effect is passed.