Jeremy Corbyn apologises for Iraq War on behalf of Labour

Jeremy Corbyn has apologised on behalf of the Labour Party for the "disastrous" decision to go to war in Iraq.

The Labour leader was giving his second speech following the publication of the Chilcot Report into the Iraq War, which found military action was not the "last resort" at the time former Labour prime minister Tony Blair took the country to war.

Corbyn - who campaigned against the war in the run up to the invasion in 2003 - did not mention Tony Blair by name, but made reference to his note to then US President George Bush which read: "I will be with you, whatever"

'A stain on our party and our country'

An apology was made to the people of Iraq who Corbyn said have "paid the greatest price"; the British armed forces who he said "did their duty" but in a conflict they should "never have been sent to"; and to the British public "who feel our democracy was traduced and undermined" by the decision to go to war.

Corbyn finished by saying the decision to go to war in Iraq had been "a stain on our party and our country", adding: "But we now have the chance to work together, to build more constructive and mutually balanced relationships with the rest of the world, based on cooperation, peace and international justice."