On 15 February 2003, in what is believed to be the largest political demonstration in British history, over one million people marched through central London to protest against the prospect of a war with Iraq. The event was part of a coordinated global day of action that reportedly saw over 20 million demonstrate in cities worldwide.

The march was organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain.

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The Stop the War Coalition was founded on 21 September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11, when the US president, George W. Bush, announced the “war on terror”. It grew into a broad alliance of anti-war organisations to campaign against the impending war in Afghanistan. It was initially chaired by Lindsey German, then active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Supporters of the coalition included Labour Party figures such as Tony Benn, George Galloway, Tam Dalyell and Jeremy Corbyn.

The coalition’s single, overriding objective in late 2002 and early 2003 was to prevent the government, led by Tony Blair as prime minister, from committing UK forces to a US-led invasion.

In September 2002, Bush addressed the United Nations General Assembly and warned Iraq that military action would be unavoidable if it did not comply with UN resolutions on disarmament. Mere weeks later, the UK published a dossier which claimed that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction. It claimed that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of an order to do so. In the foreword, Blair declared that the issue was a “current and serious threat to the UK national interest”.

He added: “We must ensure that he does not get to use the weapons he has, or get hold of the weapons he wants.”

The UN Security Council then unanimously passed resolution 1441 to give Iraq “a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations”. From November 2002 to March 2003, however, the UN failed to find any weapons of mass destruction after 700 inspections.

By the time of the February 2003 march, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) had all affiliated to the Stop the War Coalition.

Protesters marched from two points, the Embankment and Gower Street, before converging on a rally in Hyde Park. A wide range of speakers addressed the crowd. The veteran anti-war campaigner and former Labour minister Tony Benn drew huge applause.

Benn told the crowd: “We are here today to found a new political movement worldwide – the biggest demonstration ever in Britain.

“The first global demonstration. And its first cause is to prevent a war against Iraq. It must also be about other matters as well. It must be about the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

He added: “While we are here, 35 million people die every year of hunger. While 500 billionaires have the same income as half the population of the world put together. That the world in which we live is dominated by the military, the media and the multinationals.

“And what we are about is getting democracy all over the world. So we can build a world that is safe for our children and grandchildren. That is what it is about.”

Other speakers included Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Labour MPs Corbyn and Galloway, former cabinet minister Mo Mowlam, actor Tim Robbins, playwright Harold Pinter, human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, and the American civil rights leader and former presidential candidate, the Rev Jesse Jackson.

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Kennedy, in his contribution, pointed to “misleading” and “inconclusive” evidence provided by the government.

The Liberal Democrat leader said he had been asking questions related to a possible war in Iraq for months, receiving only “confusing, alarming” answers from the prime minister.

He added: “So I have joined you here today and I have been asking these questions for months in Parliament because I am not persuaded by the case for war. The arguments have been contradictory and inconsistent and the information has all too often been misleading as well as inconclusive.”

Kennedy said he was not a “pacifist” nor “anti-American”, but expressed his worry about the Bush administration.

He insisted that “without a second United Nations resolution based on authoritative fact from the weapons inspectorate I can assure you there is no way in all conscience that the Liberal Democrats either could or should support a war and we will not.”

Kennedy concluded: “Our country has a principled and a responsible role to play on the world stage but to do so we have to pursue international justice through the United Nations and our government has got to take its people with them. It’s patently failing and that is my message for you today.”

Jesse Jackson led the crowd in chanting “give peace a chance, keep hope alive”.

The demonstration came as Tony Blair warned of the “bloody consequences” if Iraq was not confronted.

In a speech, the prime minister said: “I ask the marchers to understand this: I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour… But sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction.”

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The demonstration did not achieve its aim of preventing military action.

On 25 February 2003, the US and the UK submitted a draft resolution to the UN arguing that Iraq had missed its “final opportunity” to disarm peacefully. France, Germany and Russia submitted a rival proposal to the council calling for further weapons inspections as an alternative to military action. In March, France announced it would join Russia in vetoing a proposed UN resolution which gave Iraq until 17 March to disarm.

Britain, the United States and Spain, having all promoted the proposed resolution, later abandoned it in the face of opposition. Bush responded by giving Iraq leader Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war.

The House of Commons voted in favour of authorising military action the following month, and the invasion of Iraq began on 20 March 2003 – just 33 days after the Stop the War Coalition demonstration.

On 6 July 2016, the findings of the Iraq Inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, were published after seven years of investigation. The 2.6 million-word report – longer than the King James Version of the Bible, the complete works of William Shakespeare, and Tolstoy’s War and Peace put together – provided a searing indictment of the intelligence failures, shaky legal rationale, miscalculations, inadequate military preparation and exaggerated public statements that led to the UK’s involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.