'You've got blood on your hands': Father of dead soldier refuses to shake Blair's hand after memorial to Britain's fallen heroes



A father’s grief and anger boiled over yesterday when he came face to face with the man he blames for his son’s death.

Tony Blair offered his hand to Peter Brierley during a reception following a service at St Paul’s to commemorate the dead of the Iraq war.

‘Don’t you dare,’ roared Mr Brierley. ‘You have my son’s blood on your hands.’

David Cameron chats to Cherie Blair as Tony Blair looks on during the reception at London Guildhall where he was snubbed by Peter Brierley

Anger: Peter Brierley said Mr Blair had 'blood on his hands'. Mr Brierley's son, Shaun, was killed on duty in Iraq



Three of the former Prime Minister’s bodyguards sprang into action, ushering away a visibly shocked Mr Blair, who had earlier been criticised during the service by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But 59-year-old Mr Brierley, whose son Shaun died in the run-up to Iraq, was not finished.

Blair's signature adorns a programme he signed for an Iraq veteran during the reception at London Guildhall

He told the Daily Mail: ‘As far as I am concerned that man is a war criminal. I can’t bear to be in the same room as him. I cannot believe he’s been allowed to come to this reception.

‘I sat through that service listening to people preaching to me about tolerance but I don’t think anyone should be forced to tolerate being in the same room as him.

‘He has made £14million on the back of taking us to war and they are now talking about making him president of the EU.

‘But I believe he’s got the blood of my son – and all of the other men and women who died in that war – on his hands.’

During the St Paul’s service Dr Rowan Williams had criticised ‘policy makers’ for failing to consider the cost of the Iraq conflict at a ceremony to commemorate the end of British operations.

He used his address to the Queen, the Prince of Wales, leading politicians and 2,000 servicemen and their families to remind them that the conflict remained highly controversial.

He said: ‘Many people of my generation and younger grew up doubting whether we should ever see another straightforward international conflict, fought by a standing army with conventional weapons.



‘We had begun to forget the realities of cost. And when such a conflict appeared on the horizon, there were those among both policy makers and commentators who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price, the cost of justice.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attend the memorial service at St Paul's

Tribute: Jackson Pardoel, 10, and his mother Kellie arrive at the ceremony. Jackson is wearing his father's medal. Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel was killed in 2005 in Iraq when his Hercules was shot down by enemy fire

The conflict in Iraq will, for a long time yet, exercise the historians, the moralists, the international experts.

India Pardoel, six, also wears her father's medals

‘In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be.

‘Reflecting on the years of the Iraq campaign, we cannot say that no mistakes were ever made (when has that ever been the case?) But we can be grateful for the courage and honesty shown in facing them.’

Mr Blair looked ahead, stony-faced, as Dr Williams went on to suggest that if those in power were to take any lesson from the build-up to the Iraq war, it was the importance of avoiding exaggerated rhetoric.

‘Perhaps we have learned something, if only that there is a time to keep silence, a time to let go of the satisfyingly overblown language that is so tempting to human beings when war is in the air.’

Some 179 British soldiers and military personnel died between the start of the conflict, known as Operation Telic in March 2003 and the withdrawal of British troops in April this year.

Mr Blair and his wife Cherie had joined several hundred Iraq veterans and their families for yesterday’s Guildhall reception after the service.

Also there were Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Princess Anne, who all received a warm welcome.

Mr Blair had appeared in good spirits thanks to the queue of soldiers who had been lining up to have their picture taken with him.



He raised eyebrows by autographing the orders of service offered to him by several of the guests before turning to Mr Brierley, from Batley, West Yorkshire, who said he ‘couldn’t help but let rip’.



Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, a member of the 1st (UK) Armoured Division Signals Regiment, was one of the first to die shortly before the start of hostilities in March 2003.

The 28-year-old career soldier, who was married with a four-year-old son, was transferring troops from Kuwait towards the front line when his Land Rover, which had infra-red plates fitted over a headlight, crashed.



His father, a member of the Stop The War Coalition, subsequently went to the House of Lords seeking an independent inquiry into the war, arguing that his son’s death was the result of a ‘rushed job’.



Yesterday he added: ‘Six years may have gone by but the pain is always there. Every time I see footage of a coffin coming off a plane, it brings it all flooding back and reminds me of what happened to Shaun.

‘Accidents can happen anywhere, I understand that. Shaun was a soldier to his very marrow and knew the risks.

‘But there were so many fundamental problems with the operation and had they been addressed, this accident would not have happened.

‘The truth is that we went to war on the lies of Blair and his weapons of mass destruction.

‘He sent our fine men and women to fight without proper transport, kit or arms. And as a result of that decision, I have lost my son.

‘No other parent should have to go through what we have gone through and he needs to know that.’

Tony Blair arrives for the service of commemoration

Backing the troops: Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh enter St Paul's for the service

The Queen and Prince Philip stand for prayers as the service starts

The Countess of Wessex and Prince Charles at the service



The former PM then speaks to members of the RAF

Labour of love? This wide view shows how Brown and Blair kept their distance during the ceremony

The Archbishop of Canterbury gives his address, praising the soldiers but pondering the true cost of war

Dr Williams, who took time to criticise the cost of the war, greets the Queen at the start of the service

In memory: Former army chief Richard Dannatt and Prince William arrive

Hat trick: Cherie Blair and Sarah Brown wore stylish headgear to the event



An engraved memorial stone, brought from the Basra memorial wall in Iraq, unveiled yesterday inside St Paul's



And lest we forget: Soldiers are still dying in Afghanistan. Here, sobbing Kate Woolley, 24, presses her face to the side of the hearse taking her boyfriend, Guardsman Jamie Janes, 20, through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire





