A long-awaited UK report has found that Saddam Hussein did not pose an imminent threat when the US and UK invaded Iraq in 2003.

The British government's Chilcot Report says there could be no certainty that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction, when Tony Blair told MPs about them in 2002.

It also finds that Britain had not used up all peaceful options before launching the invasion in March 2003. 

However it has not expressed a view on whether or not the war was legal, claiming that can only be decided by the courts.

The families of soldiers who died in Iraq say they will now consider legal action against Blair and others named in the inquiry's mammoth report.

However Sir John says the case for removing Saddam Hussein was not as clear cut as the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair had argued:

Responding this afternoon Tony Blair says he stands by the decision to go to war in Iraq - suggesting that some of the alternatives outlined by Chilcot were, in fact, ruled out by political circumstances.

He also added that in the same circumstances, he would again choose to invade - and suggested the situation in Iraq would have been worse had Saddam Hussein been allowed to rule into the period of the Arab Spring.

He said he took full responsibility for the failings outlined by Chilcot, however, and became emotional when discussing the 179 British armed services personnel who died on duty in Iraq:

Among the documents uncovered by the inquiry include a note from Blair to US president George W Bush in July 2002 - eight months before an invasion was agreed by the UK Cabinet and House of Commons.

While he raised concerns about the aftermath of any intervention, he said clearly, "I will be with you, whatever."

"I will be with you, whatever." Two months before dodgy dossier was published, Blair had outsourced foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/U3nkrwcWeG

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) July 6, 2016

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News: