Documents released on Tuesday to the National Archives in Kew, west London, reveal that in 2005, Blair said it was “essential” that courts like the International Criminal Court (ICC) did not investigate UK actions in Iraq.

According to UK media reports, Blair’s comments followed a written memo Phillipson sent him in July 2005 about a meeting between the country’s attorney general at the time and two former UK military chiefs. He wrote that they had discussed the case of British soldiers who were accused of beating an Iraqi hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, to death.

Mousa, who was killed in September 2003 in Basra, Iraq, had been in the custody of UK troops.

Christopher Featherstone, associate lecturer at the Department of Politics, University of York, said: “Blair didn’t want prosecution through international law, and wanted military justice – he saw this as less punitive in the punishments