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"I Regret Nothing
Mar 19 2003
By David Seymour
ONLY the day before, Robin Cook had a large, wood-panelled office at
the heart of the Palace of Westminster.
Now he looks round the tiny room high above the Commons — too small for him even to pose for a picture in — which another MP has lent him.
 NO REGRETS: Cook
It isn't the only change in his life since he resigned as Leader of the Commons over the Government's support for war in Iraq.
His salary has fallen by £70,000. The efficient team who ran his office has gone. So has the chauffeur-driven limo and even his computer.
Soon he will also lose the sumptuous Regency flat in Carlton Gardens which is the only home he and his wife Gaynor have known since they married.
But is Mr Cook regretting his resignation? Not at all. "I certainly realised what the consequences would be," he says. "But I have no sense of bitterness or rancour. I feel very much at peace with myself today. And I would not have felt like that if I hadn't done what I did."
It was not a decision he took lightly or speedily. He remembers clearly when he decided that the end of his ministerial career might be near.
A month ago, during the Commons "half-term" break, Mr Cook and Gaynor went to the Norfolk Broads.
They spent hours walking with their two terriers, thinking and talking. "It became clear to me that unless there was a second resolution at the UN, I could not support military action."
He continued to hope there would be a breakthrough. "I have supported Tony Blair and Jack Straw in their efforts to get a second resolution. But we didn't get an agreement."
In the past week Mr Cook twice met the Prime Minister. "I made my position clear to Tony. If he proceeded to military action, then I couldn't stay."
HE added: "They were perfectly amicable conversations. After all, we have worked closely together for well over a decade.
"In no way will I now become a critic of him as Labour leader. I want him to continue — he is the best Labour leader of my lifetime — and without his personal popularity we would not have recorded two record victories."
But what about other Cabinet colleagues, especially Clare Short? Mr Cook is diplomatic.
"This is an intensely personal decision," he says. "We all have to take our own and colleagues have competing considerations.
"I was reluctant to leave the work I was doing as Leader of the House. I had terrifically enjoyed the job. It was a dream for me — messing about with Parliament all day — rather like Ratty with boats [in Wind In The Willows].
"But I could not in conscience remain in the government. Other colleagues will come to different judgments."
He seems rather shocked by the extraordinary reaction his resignation speech received from Labour MPs. They stood to applaud him, the first time that has happened in the Commons.
He refuses to accept that he could now be the focus for discontent with Tony Blair. "I want to concentrate on the issues, particularly international ones. And especially this enormously important issue over Iraq."
As a former Foreign Secretary he is concerned over the damage that has been done to international relations. He said: "One reason I was prompted to do what I did was that it became clear the US administration had a timetable for conflict and a deter-mination to keep to it despite the cost in diplomatic terms."
SOME of the President's men, he reveals, made no secret of their long- term wish to take action against Saddam.
"Tony's task is made so much more difficult by many of the statements coming out of Washington. They want a regime change more than they want disarmament. Every time Hans Blix announced he had made some headway, his report was greeted with consternation from the White House as it might reduce the case for war."
There are two other key reasons which led him to resign. "As a former Foreign Secretary I am dismayed at the way we're getting into a war from a position of diplomatic weakness. A year ago we had this broad coalition against international terrorism. The US and Britain have let it go. It's a terrific asset to have lost and a terrible diplomatic miscalculation."
He went on: "I also have to ask if it is right to commit British troops to action without the approval of the British people. Neither the international community nor the British people believe there is an urgent threat from Saddam."
Mr Cook praised the Daily Mirror's stand against war without a UN mandate. "I've been very impressed at the way the Mirror has taken its duty seriously to keep readers informed and express the doubts and anxieties felt by so many people in Britain."
ROBIN and Gaynor will continue to live in the flat in Carlton Gardens until they can find somewhere new.
"Jack Straw has been very understanding about the need to have time to find alternative accommodation," he explains.
"Besides, in the immediate future I need to focus on the international situation, not packing cases."
Now that he has made his decision, he just wants "to get on with the rest of my life".
He repeats: "I don't regret what I have done," then adds: "I came into politics not for the accommodation, but because I had a set of principles."
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