Tony Blair has denied that a Labour government paid compensation to the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who went on to blow himself up in Iraq, in a strongly worded statement in which he accused the Daily Mail of hypocritical coverage over the Manchester-born jihadi’s death. The former prime minister said that compensation – thought to amount to £1m – was paid out under the Conservative-led coalition government in 2010 – and criticised the tabloid for blaming him and Labour instead. “He was not paid compensation by my government,” Blair said. “The compensation was agreed in 2010 by the Conservative government.”On Wednesday morning, the Daily Mail front-page story was the death of Jamal al-Harith – who changed his name from Ronald Fiddler after converting to Islam in his 20s but most recently went by the nom de guerre Abu-Zakariya al-Britani – in which Blair’s government was singled out for “intense lobbying” for his release.(The guardian)…[+]