UNITED KINGDOM / IRAQ: British premier Tony Blair faces a crucial vote in parliament over Iraq

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush's strongest ally in the Iraq war, faced the possibility of an embarrassing defeat in parliament on Tuesday (October 31) over his handling of the conflict. A defeat would step up pressure on Blair to reassess his Iraq strategy at a time when politicians and even Britain's army chief have questioned the point of keeping British troops there. The small Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties have put forward a motion calling for senior politicians to review the government's handling of the conflict, forcing the first parliamentary debate on Iraq in more than two years. Blair and Bush face a barrage of criticism over the relentless violence in Iraq and the mounting death toll of U.S. and British forces there. Polls show that most Britons feel troops should be withdrawn from Iraq sooner rather than later. Some opponents of the war in Blair's ruling Labour Party are likely to rebel against the government, threatening to overturn Blair's 67-seat working majority in parliament. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, called on MPs to defeat the motion. He said: "We've said that there are lessons to be learned and we're not ruling out further inquiries. We've had four already and people need to acknowledge that but the time to take that decision is when our troops are no longer putting their lives on the line. Now is not the time to do it. It would only give comfort to our enemies and I hope very much that the House of Commons will vote against this proposal later on today." The main opposition Conservatives support calls for an inquiry, although they say it does not need to be immediate. Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague said that if the motion passed the government would have to put forward its own proposals for an inquiry. The Conservatives have faced accusations of hypocrisy from the government because they have consistently backed the war in Iraq, but Hague dismissed the charges. He said that because the head of the British army was calling for Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq soon, that the motion was justified. "We can't really be accused of that (hypocrisy) because General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the General Staff, himself said two weeks ago that we need to reflect on what has happened over the last three years," he said. Blair has said there will be no shift in his strategy of keeping British troops in Iraq until local forces are capable of ensuring security. Conservative leader David Cameron has broadly supported that view, saying British forces must remain in Iraq while the Iraqi government wants them there. "It's because we've got British troops on the ground, some of them of course in their third deployment now to Iraq, that we need to learn these lessons very very quickly," said Adam Price, of the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru party, who proposed the motion. Blair's official spokesman said a defeat for the government in a vote expected around 1900 GMT would send the wrong message to British troops and Iraqi insurgents. Blair has led his Labour Party to three successive election victories, but controversy over the Iraq war and opposition to some of his domestic polices have undermined his popularity, forcing him to announce he will step down within a year. Blair won parliamentary backing for war in Iraq just before the invasion was launched in March 2003, despite a rebellion by about one in three Labour members.

ITN Source | October 31, 2006

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