Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke stepped up his challenge for the Conservative leadership today by attacking Prime Minister Tony Blair's role in the Iraq war.
Mr Clarke, a consistent critic of the invasion despite his party's officially supportive line, claimed that the British government's stated reasons for participating in the US-led assault were "bogus".
Speaking at Westminster, Mr Clarke warned the decision to take a leading role in the invasion had made ordinary life more dangerous for the British people.
He said: "The disastrous decision to invade Iraq has made Britain a more dangerous place. The war did not create the danger of Islamic terrorism in this country, which had been growing internationally even before the tragedy of the attacks on 9/11.
"However, the decision by the UK Government to become the leading ally of President Bush in the Iraq debacle has made Britain one of the foremost targets for Islamic extremists," he said.
"Personally, I would have accepted that increased risk as the price of going to war if I had believed that we were driven to go to war for a just cause and a British national interest that could be pursued in no other way," Mr Clarke said.
"Bush's real purpose, of installing quite quickly a pro-Western democracy in Baghdad with the support of a grateful liberated population, has proved to be a sad illusion, "he said.
But Mr Clarke stressed that he was not advocating an immediate withdrawal of British forces.
"I do not believe, as leftist critics of the war argue, that we should just pull the troops out. It would be immoral to walk away from the consequences of our actions leaving behind anarchy and civil war in Iraq," he said.
PA