Analysis: Clare Short's long-awaited applause
Clare Short almost broke down in tears at times during her evidence today
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By Matthew Champion.
On March 18th 2003 as the late Robin Cook delivered his acclaimed resignation speech from the backbenches of the Commons, Clare Short's name was being booed by anti-war protestors at nearby Parliament Square.
It would take almost a further two months for the then international development secretary and notable critic of the Iraq war to herself resign, and almost seven years for her to finally experience a measure of redemption when she appeared before the Iraq inquiry today.
Today she revealed in the build-up to the war she had shared cups of coffee with Gordon Brown, who felt marginalised and disillusioned with what he saw as Tony Blair's attempts to carve a legacy.
But after the war "Gordon was back in with Tony... no more cups of coffee," she added poignantly, illustrating her isolation.
Full story: Short attacks Blair's 'secret Iraq chaos'
The former minister has been subjected to something of a character assassination since the inquiry began public hearings last year, most notably from former No 10 press chief Alastair Campbell and Blair himself.
But after she had finished her at-times blistering testimony the outgoing independent MP received a warm round of applause from the public gallery, only the second time this has happened since the inquiry began (the other time being Foreign Office lawyer Elizabeth Wilmshurst) and in sharp contrast to the "murderer" heckle that greeted the end of Blair's own evidence last Friday.
Short seemed on the verge of tears as she discussed the circumstances of her eventual resignation to the inquiry panel, saying she had been "conned" by Blair, who was desperate to avoid two ministerial exits on the eve of war.
The fact that those who heard her evidence in person reacted with applause is down to the disarming and often brutal way in which she presented it.
Her testimony pulled no punches from the beginning, accusing Blair of misleading parliament and lying to the Cabinet, which was also misled by the attorney general Lord Goldsmith.
Short said she was "jeered at" when she expressed shock at the attorney general's infamous legal U-turn just three days before the invasion; painting a picture of an autocratic system of government within Whitehall; one controlled almost exclusively by No 10 and which marginalised every other department.
Among the "big deceits" was Blair falsely claiming he had been told by the French that they would veto any second UN resolution, while in a trip to Mozambique the year before the war Short said the prime minister had told her he was not actively planning for war, although evidence presented to the inquiry so far has shown this to be false.
As Short repeatedly pointed out today, the "judgment" (his phrase from last Friday) that Blair eventually made was not even his to make, as it should have been a Cabinet decision.
The only thing that Short and Blair agreed upon emerging from today's session was the former prime minister's conviction for going to war.
"I think he was absolutely sincere," she said. "He was willing to be deceitful because he thought he was right."
Short, who will step down from the Commons at the next general election, did not have an ideal time at the Department for International Development in her six years before the war.
Her decision to inform Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe that the New Labour government was not willing to honour the Lancaster House agreement to fund land purchases played a major part in the south African country's descent in the following years.
But today at the Iraq inquiry with a burst of spontaneous applause she laid some ghosts to rest over a war she was powerless to prevent.