Britain told US that invading Iraq could cost Blair his premiership, papers reveal

George W Bush and Tony Blair at Camp David in 2001. Blair’s aim in 2003 was to convince the US a second UN resolution was ‘politically essential for the UK’. Photograph: Reuters

The stark terms in which the US was warned that invading Iraq without a second UN security council resolution could cost Tony Blair his premiership have been revealed in newly released documents.

Blair’s foreign policy adviser, David Manning, warned Condoleezza Rice, the then US national security adviser: “The US must not promote regime change in Baghdad at the price of regime change in London.”