London’s Daily Mail has not pulled any punches in remembering the way that Tony Blair’s Labor Government treated the Libya of dictator Colonel Gadaffi.

The worst unrest of Gaddafi’s 41-year rule comes seven years after Tony Blair’s controversial Deal in the Desert, when the Labour Prime Minister ushered Libya in from the cold in exchange for billions in British business deals. Since sanctions were lifted in 2004, UK firms have sold sniper rifles, tear gas, wall-breaching projectile launchers and crowd control ammunition to a regime found guilty of ordering the Lockerbie bombing, Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.

It paved the way for the near doubling of exports to Libya, worth almost £500million in 2009 alone.

Mr Blair’s deal is widely seen as having paved the way for the controversial release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.