The Hindu : Blair headed for party 'revolt'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 27, 2003

International

International

Blair headed for party 'revolt'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON FEB 26. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was today headed for the most damaging showdown yet with his party MPs over Iraq as upto 100 Labour backbenchers, including several former Ministers, prepared to vote against a government motion in the Commons.

The mood, ahead of the vote expected late in the evening, was febrile with party managers admitting that it could be the biggest rebellion against Mr. Blair since he became Prime Minister in 1997. If the rebels stuck to the script, this would be the first time that nearly a quarter of the Labour parliamentary party would be voting against a government policy, superseding the last biggest revolt in December 1997, involving some 80 MPs.

The Party chairman, John Reid, acknowledged the extent of dissent but put on a brave face saying that 75 per cent of the people in the country would support a U.N.-backed military action against Iraq. In a setback to the government strategy, the Speaker of the Commons admitted an anti-war amendment, tabled by the Liberal Democrats and supported by many Labour MPs.

While the amendment was certain to be defeated, the fact that a number of ruling party MPs planned to break ranks to vote for an Opposition move indicated the depth of anger with the official policy.

Even some Tory big hitters such as the former chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, were expected to oppose the push for war. As many as 160 MPs signed a cross-party amendment saying that the case for war had not been proved.

`Use of force justified'

Given its huge majority in the House, the Government was set to win the day, but the size of the rebellion was likely to do considerable damage to Mr. Blair's standing, which is already at its lowest. However, he remained unfazed as he again justified use of force to disarm Iraq and made clear that irrespective of whether a second U.N. resolution was passed or not he would support any U.S. move to rid Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. He insisted that he was confident that a second resolution would come through. The Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, warned that any `precipitate' action would `shatter' the international coalition against terrorism, and supported the French and German plea for more time to be given to the weapons inspectors. "Why is he (Mr. Blair) so fundamentally hostile to the memorandum that the French and others have now tabled? Should we not respond to that and does it not offer a better route forward'' he asked.

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