The pressure on Tony Blair is mounting. After only four days of the Chilcot inquiry, the former prime minister is reported to be furious that a succession of senior diplomats and civil servants have torn into his reputation by questioning his judgment and honesty over the decision to go to war with Iraq.

On Sunday, it got considerably worse. The Mail on Sunday reported that Blair's senior legal advisor at the time, Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith, wrote his boss a letter in July 2002, eight months before the invasion, making it clear that a declaration of war on Iraq, with a view to deposing Saddam Hussein, would be illegal.

Not only did Blair ignore the advice, he issued instructions that Goldsmith should be gagged and barred from Cabinet, and then ordered a cover-up to ensure the public never found out about Goldsmith's advice, said the Mail.

Goldsmith wrote the letter on July 29, 2002, on a single side of A4 headed notepaper, after attending a Cabinet meeting six days earlier at which he was apparently horrified to hear that Britain and America were set on 'regime change' in Iraq.

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