Tony Blair: There’s more to me than the Iraq War - with video
Tony Blair insisted there was more to his legacy than the Iraq War as he said he had no fears about any future legal challenges over his role in the conflict.
The former Labour Prime Minister's reign has come to be largely defined by his decision to lead the country into the 2003 war in Iraq, with calls for him to face prosecution since the explosive findings of the Chilcot inquiry in 2016.
It concluded that Mr Blair was not 'straight with the nation' over the invasion, which it described as 'unnecessary'.
But speaking on a visit to the Midlands, Mr Blair said his administration accomplished 'so much more' during a decade in power.
In a wideranging interview he also said he believed Labour could win the next general election under Jeremy Corbyn – but claimed the party should be '20 points ahead' in the polls due to the ineptitude of the Tory government.
Watch the interview here:
However, he refused to be drawn over whether his old hard left foe would make a good Prime Minister.
Mr Blair also said he was 'distressed' over Labour's anti-Semitism crisis, saying that the Labour leadership was 'so anti-Israel' that it did not really understand the issue, a position that had encouraged a hatred of Jews from some members.
He also voiced his concern at the rise of Momentum and the far left, claiming the views they held 'were not really in the tradition' of the Labour party.
On Brexit, Mr Blair said that Theresa May was left with a choice between 'pointless and painful' when it comes to striking a deal with the EU. He said this meant another referendum – which he wants to see – was entirely possible.
Mr Blair, who was Prime Minister from 1997-2007, was in the West Midlands as a guest of Dudley North MP Ian Austin.
He visited West Midlands Police Station in Brierley Hill where he talked to senior officers and beat bobbies, and also spoke with engineering students at Dudley College's ground-breaking Advance campus.
Dressed in a dark blue suit, a white shirt and a pale blue tie, Mr Blair looked more 'New Tory' than 'New Labour'.
His attendance saw a large security presence, with four guards shadowing his every move during his day in Dudley.
Asked how he felt about his legacy being defined by the Iraq War, he said: "I think people have just got to decide whether they are going to think that is the only thing that the Government did. We can have a debate about that, and what the rights and wrongs of it are.
"But there's so much more that we did."
Mr Blair cited the introduction of the minimum wage, reductions in poverty and investment in healthcare and major achievements of his administration.
He admitted: "Sure we got things wrong, but there was a lot we got right."
Asked if he was concerned that he may one day face legal proceedings over Iraq, he said: "No. This was a decision we took as a Government at the time."
Mr Blair, who has made no secret of his dissatisfaction over Labour's direction under Mr Corbyn. He said: "I worry about the far left."
But he denied he was planning to launch a new centrist political party, and said he was focused on his work with the non-political Institute for Global Change think-tank that he founded in 2016.
