Mum of teenager killed in Iraq war vents her anger at Tony Blair

Sally Veck dismissed Mr Blair’s apology over his decision to invade Iraq despite ‘flawed intelligence’ and it not being a last resort, as highlighted in this week’s Chilcot report.

Mrs Veck’s daughter, Private Eleanor Dlugosz, 19, from Swanmore, near Fareham, died nine years ago in a bomb blast in Iraq.

Eleanor had always dreamed of joining the army.

Mrs Veck, 50, who lives in Soberton, acknowledged that her daughter was merely following orders and was doing a job she wanted to do.

But she has serious doubts about the decision-making of Mr Blair and wants him to stand trial.

She said: ‘He’s nothing.

‘He thought it was his country and he was going to run it.

‘He ignored the advice of other people and did want he wanted to do. The cost has been too high.’

Mr Blair has released a detailed statement following the report.

He told the BBC: ‘I can regret the mistakes and I can regret many things about it but I genuinely believe, not just that we acted out of good motives, and I did what I did out of good faith, but I sincerely believe that we would be in a worse position if we hadn’t acted that way. I may be completely wrong about that.

‘I understand that people still disagree but at least do me the respect – as I respect your position – of reading my argument.

‘If all of these debates are conducted around character and good faith, if you are not careful you end up a casualty of a debate that is all about that type of invective, you are then unable to have a proper debate about the difficulty of dealing with this issue.’

But Mrs Veck said: ‘I don’t believe any of it.

‘I don’t believe a word. He’s just a snake – a slippery eel.’