On 20 October 2006, former cabinet minister Clare Short resigned the Labour whip, choosing to sit in the House of Commons as an independent MP.

Upon stepping down as international development secretary over the Iraq War, Short emerged as a persistent backbench critic of Tony Blair, his foreign policy and leadership style. However, unlike former foreign secretary Robin Cook, Short did not resign from the cabinet before the war in Iraq, and she supported the government’s March 2003 resolution that authorised military action.

Instead, Short resigned from cabinet two months later on 12 May, citing “grave errors” committed by the government “both the run-up to the war and now”.

She stated: “Of course, we must all unite to dismantle the terrorist networks, and, through the UN, the world is doing this. But undermining international law and the authority of the UN creates a risk of instability, bitterness and growing terrorism that will threaten the future for all of us.”

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Short’s 2006 resignation followed a public row with the chief whip, Jacqui Smith, over her public statements.

It came after Short announced she would stand down at the next general election and actively campaign for a hung parliament.

In a piece for the Independent, published on 14 September, Short said she had “reached a stage where I am profoundly ashamed of the government”. The former cabinet minister referred to “Blair’s craven support for the extremism of US neoconservative foreign policy”.

She added: “My conclusion is that the key to the change we need is a hung parliament which will bring in electoral reform. Then we would have a second election.”

This stance, effectively encouraging the defeat of her then-Labour colleagues, invited a rebuke from the whips’ office. Smith said Short had breached the code of conduct of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).

Short responded by resigning from the Labour Party in a letter addressed to Smith as chief whip.

She argued that “exaggerated majorities in the House of Commons have led to an abject parliament and a concentration of power in Number 10 that has produced arrogant, error prone government.”

Short accused Smith’s predecessor as chief whip, Hilary Armstrong, of using “her authority to stop me discussing the fact that the prime minister engaged in a series of half-truths and deceits to get us to war in Iraq.” She said that she remained proud of the “history of the Labour Party and a convinced social democrat.”

Short’s broadside represented a sweeping critique of Blair and his New Labour project.

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In 2010, testifying to the Chilcot Inquiry, Short accused the prime minister of lying to her and misleading parliament in the build-up to the Iraq invasion.

Short stated: “[Cabinet] was not a decision-making body. I don’t think there was ever a substantive discussion about anything in cabinet. If you ever raised an issue with Tony Blair he would cut it off. He did that in July 2002 when I said I wanted to talk about Iraq. He said he did not want it leaking into the press.”