Tony Blair was branded a “demented warmonger” yesterday after the slippery former prime minister tried to rescue his reputation from the embers of the Iraq conflict.

Mr Blair argued in a long essay published on his website that Iraq would be a much worse place today if he had not ordered British troops to invade the country.

He added that the ongoing occupation of Mosul by jihadist organisation Isis could have been prevented with British intervention in the Syrian civil war.