Updated 2 July 2013: rephrasing of opening paragraph to remove suggestion that Tony Blair may have lied over the Iraq war. Removal of word 'illegal' in the final paragraph as there is dispute over whether or not the Iraq war was legal
Former spin doctor supremo, Alastair Campbell, has defended Tony Blair's record on the Iraq War by comparing the former prime minister with Winston Churchill, who he insists told a hatful of lies in World War II.
Speaking in Australia last week Campbell said the legendary wartime leader used a "bodyguard of lies" to deceive Hitler before the Normandy landings in World War II.
He also stressed how Churchill lied to MPs after in order to "keep various deceptions going".
Campbell said: "If the pollsters were to do a survey, who had a greater commitment to wartime truth, Churchill in the Second World War or Tony Blair in Iraq, I think we know what the answer would be. . it just wouldn’t be true."
Churchill, threatened with the invasion of Britain and the spread of nazism, deceived Hitler in the build-up to one of the largest amphibious invasions ever launched in an attempt to liberate France and eventually the rest of Europe while Blair has come under fire from the anti-war lobby for siding with George Bush and allegedly not providing the full picture in a war that some still believe to have been illegal.