Mr Blair was quizzed for six hours yesterday about why Britain invaded Iraq in 2003.

Mr Blair told the inquiry he would have made the same decision again and denied striking a "covert" deal with George Bush to invade Iraq at a private meeting in 2002 with the US president.

He also said he did not deceive the public into thinking Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes' notice.

The question and answer session was watched intently on TV by heartbroken parents John Miller, Pat Long and Elsie Manning.

Mrs Manning's daughter, Staff Sgt Sharron Elliott, 34, from South Shields, was the first servicewoman to be killed in Iraq.

Mr Miller's son, Corporal Simon Miller, 21, died alongside Mrs Long's son, Corporal Paul Long, 24, both from South Shields, when they were attacked by a 400-strong mob in Al Majar Al-Kabir in 2003.

Mr Miller, who took a day off work to watch the inquiry, said: "I found it extremely frustrating to watch.

"Blair said he didn't deceive people, but my son went to fight a war because of his lies, and now he's dead. Hundreds of lives have been lost, because of him.

"But it was the soldiers, like my son, who paid with their lives, not Blair."

Mr Blair, however, defended his decision to go to war, telling the inquiry it wasn't about a conspiracy or a deception, but a decision based on Saddam Hussein's history.

Although he admitted "things obviously look quite different now," given the failure to discover any weapons of mass destruction after the invasion.

Earlier witnesses to the inquiry have suggested Mr Blair told Mr Bush at their April 2002 meeting at the ranch in Crawford, Texas, that the UK would join the Americans in a war with Iraq.

But Mr Blair said: "What I was saying – I was not saying this privately incidentally, I was saying it in public – was 'we are going to be with you in confronting and dealing with this threat'."

Mr Miller added: "In my view, the decision to go to war was made then.
"He told Bush he would be with him. I think Bush wanted to attack Iraq and Tony Blair felt he had to join them because he promised Bush."

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