Attorney general to leave British cabinet

LONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- British Attorney General Peter Goldsmith plans to leave the cabinet with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Goldsmith is the third member of Blair's cabinet to announce he will not remain to serve under Gordon Brown, The Daily Mail reported.

Goldsmith's 2003 memos to Blair on the legality of the Iraq War caused controversy when they became public two years later. His first memo, dated March 7, 2003, contained reservations that were missing from a final one written 10 days later. He denies any political pressure convinced him to change his views.

The attorney general also has been criticized for failing to remove himself from the cash-for-peerages investigation.

Goldsmith became Baron Goldsmith when he was made a life peer in 1999, two years before his appointment to the cabinet.