BRITAIN: The British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, was under pressure yesterday to make a statement to the House of Commons on the Iraq weapons report as the opposition leader, Mr Michael Howard, urged voters feeling "let down" by Labour to back the Conservatives writes Frank Millar in London.
In a short rallying call on the final day of the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, Mr Howard again signalled his intention to make "trust" in Mr Blair a core issue in the general election expected next year.
Mr Howard said his party was "ready to help our country" and said he would lead "a government which is generous in spirit and competent in action . . . a government which is honest, a government (the people) can trust." And he renewed his charge that Mr Blair had not told the country the truth about the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.
In response to the Iraq Survey Group's final report, that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Mr Howard told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't believe he (Mr Blair) told the truth about the intelligence he received."
Sharpening their attack further, the Conservative's Shadow Foreign Secretary Mr Michael Ancram said Mr Blair "should have trusted the people" with the truth: "Instead he misled the British people and in so doing he has lost the people's trust."
The Tory attack came as Liberal Democrat leader Mr Charles Kennedy demanded Mr Blair appear before the Commons when it resumes next week "and make a full statement as a matter of urgency to explain why this country went to war on a false premise."
Mr Kennedy said the Iraq Survey Group's report had conclusively shown that Saddam did not have WMD or programmes to create them, and as a result it was "now clear that we did not go to war as a last resort." Mr Kennedy's foreign affairs spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell, said the report showed that the policy of containment had been working and claimed the Blair government's case for going to war was being demolished "brick by brick."
Meanwhile, the only man to resign from Mr Blair's government in opposition to the war, Mr Robin Cook, was widely seen to have been vindicated in his original assessment that the intelligence available had not established a threat to British interests sufficient to justify the military action.
Mr Cook said the war had been "a tragic mistake", and added: "There were no stockpiles. There were also no programmes. There were no chemical precursors, there were no biological agents, there were no plants to make them, there were no delivery vehicles to fire them. There was no programme, no capability, no weapons. We could have found all that out if we had let (UN weapons inspector) Hans Blix finish the job which he wanted to do without fighting a war in which 10,000 people were killed."
However a defiant Mr Blair insisted the report showed Saddam had no intention of complying with UN resolutions and that the policy of sanctions was not working. And the Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, claimed the report showed that "the threat from Saddam Hussein in terms of his intentions" was "even starker" than they had previously seen.
Bringing the Conservative conference to a close with a direct appeal to Labour or Liberal Democrat voters last time, Mr Howard said he would quit as leader if he ever became a liability to his party - side-stepping a direct question as to whether he would stand down if the Conservatives lose the general election.