Document releases from 2004 show that the Labour cabinet was deeply divided and badly informed on how to handle migration from Europe

Judgments about Tony Blair’s Labour government tend inevitably to focus on the Iraq war. Iraq was traumatic and defining. Britain’s role, driven by Mr Blair, exposed his overly personal system of decision-making. The invasion was a historic and bloody failure, killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and sowing dragon’s teeth. At home, the war devastated Mr Blair’s reputation and drained support from Labour.

The publication this week by the National Archives of Blair government papers under the 20-year rule does nothing to undermine Iraq’s importance in the history of that period. We read, for instance, of the US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage complaining that President George Bush thought he was “on some sort of mission from God” in Iraq, and that Mr Blair needed to give the president “a dose of reality”. But by then, tragically, the damage was long done.

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