Tony Blair’s opponents are still recycling myths about the Iraq war

The former prime minister’s knighthood has prompted the rehashing of a 20-year-old story from the memoir of Geoff Hoon, defence secretary at the time of the invasion, writes John Rentoul

Geoff Hoon with Tony Blair at the 2003 Labour conference (PA)

For nearly 20 years now the Daily Mail has been spinning the thinnest of recycled material in its campaign against Tony Blair over the Iraq war – a military campaign that at the time it cautiously supported.

Today’s instalment, a front-page lead story headlined, “Ex-minister: Blair’s aide told me to burn Iraq war advice”, is an ingenious use of a book published two months ago, which recounted a story reported seven years ago, referring to a document published 17 years ago, to try to generate more clicks for an online petition against Blair’s knighthood.

Today’s story reports the account given by Geoff Hoon, defence secretary at the time of the Iraq war, in his memoir, See How They Run, published in November. He was sent a copy of the legal advice given by Peter Goldsmith, the attorney general, just before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. When his principal private secretary asked Jonathan Powell, Blair’s chief of staff, what to do with the document after Hoon had read it, Hoon said he was told to “burn it”.