Former British PM Tony Blair slams 'conspiracy theorists'

The former prime minister spoke out 10 days after facing a six-hour grilling by the latest inquiry into the war led by Sir John Chilcot.

Evidence heard at the inquiry suggested that George Bush warned Mr Blair the United States was going ahead with the invasion of Iraq "come what may".

Sir Lawrence Freedman, a member of the inquiry panel, hinted that they had seen records of conversations indicating Mr Bush was determined to overthrow Saddam Hussein, even if he co-operated fully with United Nations weapons inspectors.

The disclosure came as former foreign secretary Jack Straw was making his second appearance before the inquiry.

Asked on US television why the UK had held a succession of such probes into the invasion, Mr Blair said: "I think it's partly because we have this curious habit - I don't think this is confined to Britain actually - where people find it hard to come to the point where they say: we disagree; you're a reasonable person, I'm a reasonable person but we disagree.

"There's always got to be a scandal as to why you hold your view. There's got to be some conspiracy behind it, some great deceit that's gone on and people just find it hard to understand that it's possible for people to have different points of view and hold them...for genuine reasons. There's a continual desire to sort of uncover some great conspiracy when actually there's a decision at the heart of it, but there it is," he told the Huckabee show on Fox News.