THE Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, has criticised the former Prime Minister Tony Blair over his recent defence of the Iraq war.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales on Sunday, the Archbishop said that Mr Blair “has to live with his conscience”, after failing to consider the repercussions of an invasion. He said that Mr Blair’s “gung-ho” approach to the war in 2003 had not taken into account the implications.

In an interview with the US news channel CNN, which was broadcast on Monday, Mr Blair said that, although he was sorry for “mistakes in planning”, without the invasion Iraq might have become another Syria. Although “those of us who removed Saddam” carry some responsibility for Iraq today, he found it “hard to apologise” for ending the regime, he said.

Dr Morgan said: “At least he has admitted that that was a mistake, but I would have thought that, if you are a statesman, you should have thought of that before embarking on the action.”

On Friday, Sir John Chilcot, Chair of the Iraq Inquiry – opened in 2009 – confirmed in a letter to David Cameron that the Inquiry expects to complete the text of its findings in April of next year. A date for publication is expected to be agreed in June or July 2016.