If Blair had any doubts about Iraq, he hid them from us all'

TONY Blair had no doubts about committing British troops to the Iraq war or, if he did, he hid them even from his closest advisers, Alastair Campbell revealed yesterday.

Mr Campbell, who was the former prime minister's spokesman and one of his closest confidantes, is publishing his diaries today.

Yesterday, Random House, his publisher, released a series of tantalising extracts to raise interest in a book which is expected to be one of the biggest political volumes in Britain for years.

The extracts reveal extraordinary details about Mr Blair's approach to policy and people, particularly on the invasion of Iraq, which has come to define his premiership.

Mr Campbell explained how Mr Blair reacted to the tense vote in the Commons in 2003 authorising the use of British military force in Iraq, a vote which sparked a rebellion by 139 Labour MPs.

Mr Campbell wrote: "All of us, I think, had had pretty severe moments of doubt, but [Mr Blair] hadn't really, or if he had he had hidden them even from us.

"Now there was no going back. He had to give authority for our forces to go in and by [the next] night it would be under way.

"Everyone was assuming the Americans would start a massive bombing whereas, in fact, the first action would be some of our forces acting to prevent an ecological disaster."

Yesterday, Mr Campbell said he hoped the diary would show "just how seriously" Mr Blair took the decision to go to war.

He said: "I was alongside Tony as he made what was clearly the most difficult decision of his life and of his career.

"It's one he is going to have to live with for the rest of his life. And I still believe it was the right thing to do and I think he was driven by the right motives."

Mr Campbell added: "I hope this diary gives people a sense of just how seriously he took that decision. You are the Prime Minister and you are hoping to get re-elected in the future and you know how many people are opposed to this policy. At least give him the credit of understanding he did it because he thought he was doing the right thing for the long-term."

The extracts published yesterday gave interesting glimpses of life at No 10, from Mr Blair's secret dinners with Diana, Princess of Wales, before he was Prime Minister to a blazing row with Bill Clinton, the former US president who accused Mr Campbell of briefing journalists against him.

But the fulcrum of Mr Blair's time in Downing Street was his decision to use British forces in Iraq and Mr Campbell deals with this at length in his diaries.

Yesterday, Mr Campbell described the sensitive negotiations with George W Bush, the US President, before the invasion and how Mr Bush joked about his reputation as a "crazed unilateralist".

The joke came at the end of crucial talks at Camp David in September 2002, at which Mr Bush agreed to go back to the United Nations.

Mr Campbell wrote: "When TB [Tony Blair] came back in, GWB [George W Bush] said he'd decided to go to the UN and put down a new [United Nations Security Council] resolution, challenge the UN to deal with the problems for its own sake.

"He could not stand by. He would say OK, what will you do?"

Mr Campbell wrote that his opposite number at the White House had earlier argued "not too convincingly" that Mr Bush was "always going to go down the UN route".

And Dick Cheney, the vice-president, "looked very sour throughout", with Mr Bush telling Mr Blair that his deputy wanted to act immediately.

"The mood was good," Mr Campbell recorded. "As we left, Bush joked to me, 'I suppose you can tell the story of how Tony pulled the crazed unilateralist back from the brink'."

Mr Campbell also revealed how Mr Blair decided months before the Iraq war to quit Downing Street without leading Labour into a third general election.

According to Mr Campbell, Mr Blair told him in July 2002 that he had "never really wanted to do more than two full terms".

The proposed move - amid pressure over moves toward military action against Saddam Hussein and domestic reforms - was eventually ditched, with Mr Blair securing a historic third term in 2005. However, he controversially went ahead with his wish to fix a limit to his time in the job by announcing in 2004 that he would not seek a fourth term.

In the 11 July, 2002 entry from the diaries, Mr Campbell wrote: "TB called me through and we went for a chat on the terrace. Philip [Gould - election strategist] had briefed him on how his trust ratings had really dipped. He said, 'In truth I've never really wanted to do more than two full terms.'

"It was pretty clear to me that he had just about settled his view, that he would sometime announce it, say he was going to stay for the full term, but not go into the election as leader.

"The big question was the same as before - does it give him an authority of sorts, or does it erode that authority, and do people just move automatically towards GB [Gordon Brown]?"

One entry, from 17 March 2003, captures the fraught nature of the Cabinet meeting just after Robin Cook, the former Leader of the Commons, had resigned.

Mr Campbell described how Clare Short, the then-International Development Secretary, had walked into the room and asked where Mr Cook was. Told that Mr Cook had resigned, Ms Short replied: "Oh my God."

Mr Campbell added: "John Prescott, John Reid and one or two others looked physically sick."

The contrast with the breezy, confident mood which propelled Mr Blair to power could not have been greater.

One extract, from 26 April 1997, a few days before his election as Prime Minister, revealed Mr Blair's ability to approach politics from a radical new standpoint, this time in relation to the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Campbell wrote: "He stunned me straight out with the boldest plan yet: 'How would people feel if I gave Paddy [Ashdown - the then-Liberal Democrat leader] a place in the Cabinet and started merger talks?'

"F*** me. I loved the boldness of it, but doubted he could get it through the key players.

"He had the Clause 4 glint in his eye. He'd hinted at it a few times in the past, but this sounded like a plan. He was making a cup of tea and chuckling, 'We could put the Tories out of business for a generation'."

SUPPORT FOR THATCHERISM

TONY Blair's relationship with the mainstream Labour Party has always been difficult.

In this extract from 2000, Alastair Campbell reveals how even the New Labour Prime Minister thought he was not quite in tune with those around him. Mr Blair - referred to as TB - also gives qualified support to parts of Thatcherism.

• Wednesday, 30 August 2000: "TB said it was important I understood why parts of Thatcherism were right. Later in the day, he came up with another belter when Peter Hyman [strategist and speech-writer], trying to get him to be more progressive and radical, asked what gave him real edge as a politician and TB said, 'What gives me real edge is that I'm not as Labour as you lot.'

"I pointed out that was a discomfiting observation. He said it was true. He felt he was in the same position he had always been and we were the people who had changed to adapt."

NOT-SO-SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

TONY Blair's good relationship with Bill Clinton has been well documented but did not always run smoothly, as these extracts from 1999 reveal.

The two leaders had differing views on whether ground troops would be required in Kosovo. Mr Blair was for it while the US president was reluctant to commit. Mr Clinton thought Alastair Campbell was giving briefs against him.

• Tuesday, 18 May: "Just before midnight, John Sawers [foreign policy adviser] woke me up to fill me in on a 'very difficult' BC-TB phone call.

"They had spoken for over an hour, and the first five to ten minutes was taken up with Bill in a total rage. He had seen the UK reports and the stuff in the US and he 'knew what was going on. It was deliberate and it had to stop'.

"John said he was clearly suggesting I had been briefing deliberately to build up TB at his expense. TB protested as best he could, said he was appalled they would think we would undermine him when he was leading the whole thing, to which BC said in which case it is happening without you knowing - the implied notion being that was even worse.

"John said he didn't name names but it was obvious who he meant. He had never heard him so angry and TB was taken aback."

• Wednesday, May 19: "TB said BC's outburst was 'real, red-hot anger'. He felt he was just getting a lot out of his system, and TB was the only one he could really let rip with.

"He claimed that he had always been basically in favour of ground troops, but it had to be understood he could not be briefed against like this. All that was happening was that people were picking up the obvious differences of tone and emphasis.

"Our right wing of course, which hates a Labour government and a Democrat White House running a military situation, was stirring as best they could."

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

THESE two extracts provide revealing new information about Tony Blair's relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mr Blair had dinners with Diana before he became Prime Minister, apparently to discuss ways of making her an "ambassador" for Britain.

• Thursday, 4 May 1995:

"They [Tony and Cherie Blair] were at a dinner in Hyde Park Gardens that had been organised for them to meet Diana.

"I rang the bell and said, 'Could you tell Mr Blair his car is here?' I went back to the car and the next thing TB is tapping at the car window and says, 'Someone wants to meet you.'

"I get out and she's walking towards me, and she says, 'Can I come over and say hello?' And then she's standing there, absolutely, spellbindingly, drop-dead gorgeous, in a way the millions of photos didn't quite get it.

"'It would make a very funny picture if there were any paparazzi in those trees,' she said. TB was standing back and Cherie was looking impatient. I was enjoying flirting with her."

• Saturday, 30 August 1997: "At around 2am I was paged by media monitoring: 'Car crash in Paris. Dodi killed. Di hurt. This is not a joke.' Then TB came on. He had been told the same thing. He was really shocked.

"He said she was in a coma and the chances are she'd die.

"I don't think I'd ever heard him like this. He was full of pauses, then gabbling a little, but equally clear what we had to do. We started to prepare a statement.

"About an hour later Nick, the duty clerk, called and said simply, 'She's dead. The Prime Minister is being told now.' I went through on the call. Angus Lapsley was duty private secretary and was taking him through what we knew. But it was hard to get beyond the single fact of her death. 'I can't believe this. I just can't believe it,' said TB. 'You just can't take it in, can you?'

"And yet, as ever with TB, he was straight onto the ramifications."