A SOUTH Essex peeress has said lessons must be learned from the invasion and occupation of Iraq – but stopped short of saying military action was a mistake.

Angela Smith, Labour leader in the House of Lords as Baroness Smith of Basildon, was MP for Basildon in 2003 when she voted to take military action to overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein and disarm the country of weapons of mass destruction – which were never found.

On Tuesday the Chilcot Inquiry into the run up to the invasion highlighted numerous failings of the then-Labour government and, in particular, found peaceful resolutions had not be exhausted – and that therefore war was not a last resort.

“Speaking in the House of Lords that afternoon, Baroness Smith said: “The report makes a number of criticisms that must be addressed.

“What it does not do, however, is either make a case for a non-interventionist policy in future or conclude that anyone acted in bad faith. That is important.”

She added military intervention had been successful in Sierra Leone and Rwanda, before concluding: “The key challenge that Chilcot sets us is how we learn the lessons of the Iraq conflict.

“As we digest the detail of the report, more issues will arise and greater consideration and reflection will be needed. As we go through that process, we as parliamentarians have to consider how we should do things differently in future.”

On Tuesday, Southend West MP Sir David Amess said he “wrestles with his conscience” over voting for the war, and felt misled by Tony Blair.

Basildon and Billericay MP John Baron, himself a former Army captain and the only south Essex member of the Commons to vote against the war, criticised David Cameron for refusing to condemn the invasion as “wrong and a mistake.”