The Sketch: A moving farewell to make Mr Blair wince

Robin Cook left his office and got into his ministerial car to head in for the afternoon cabinet meeting; when the car arrived in Downing Street, it was empty. Do they have those special cars now, for this sort of thing? Saddam probably has.

There are those who say Mr Cook is resigning now in order to position himself in a post-Blair leadership race. I don't believe that for three reasons. But I'm not going to tell you what they are. Suffice to say his stated reasons were perfectly good enough.

Sitting up there high in the back benches, Mr Cook resembled nothing so much as the tiny bust of Lenin some people have on their mantelpieces. Ah, for a revolution. The Labour proles had been strangely quiet through the hated Foreign Secretary's statement. They muttered and rumbled, occasionally, they grumbled. Then Mr Cook rose to make his statement and great silence, the silence that is deeper in the House of Commons than anywhere else, fell upon the place.

Without any hint of rancour, Mr Cook took 10 minutes to put together the quietest case against the war we had yet heard. He praised Tony Blair (and what damage praise can inflict). He said the very intensity with which we had tried to get the second resolution meant we couldn't pretend it wasn't important now (that must have made the front bench's eyes water). We were going to war, he said, without the agreement of any of the international institutions in which we played a prominent part.

History would be astounded, he added , how quickly the unanimous coalition of a year ago had dispersed. He told the House neither the international community nor the British people had been persuaded of the urgent need for war. He ended with the declaration that the House of Commons could prevent the war by its vote tomorrow.

When he sat down, he got a standing ovation from the Liberal Democrats and half the Labour benches. It was such a strong, compelling and moving performance, the Sketch predicts the Labour rebel vote will fall significantly and struggle to break 100.

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