A LEAKED memo that revealed Tony Blair’s determination to drag Britain into the Iraq war is further evidence the former PM should be tried for war crimes, campaigners said yesterday.

The previously secret document exposed that Mr Blair was privately planning for war a year before the invasion while telling voters that he was seeking a diplomatic solution.

The memo was penned by then secretary of state Colin Powell for former president George Bush on March 28 2002 — a week before Mr Blair met Mr Bush in Texas.

It reveals that he had already given assurances that Britain would join action — months before the “dodgy dossier” about Iraq’s non-existent chemical weapons.

Mr Powell wrote: “Blair knows he may have to pay a political price for supporting us on Iraq and wants to minimise it.

“Nonetheless he will stick with us on the big issues.”

A spokesman for Mr Blair claimed the memo’s content was consistent with what he had said publicly before.

But Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsay German told the Star: “I think it’s another reason why he should be sent to the Hague as a war criminal.

“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful. He did this without recourse to the British Parliament or his own party.”

The Mail on Sunday called for the Chilcot inquiry to be reopened in light of the revelations.

Ms German said though that the inquiry, launched in 2009, had already “spent years not producing a report.”

She said: “The real thing is that he should be referred to the court in the Hague and let’s see what the evidence is against him.

“I think any honest assessment will show that there’s a lot of evidence for him to be tried as a war criminal.”