Blair’s Labour to Vote on Iraq Pullout

Spoiling earnest efforts by Blair to focus minds on domestic issues ahead of an expected general election next year, some 42,000 Labour delegates backed Sunday, September 26, placing the invasion of Iraq high on the agenda of the conference in Brighton, a resort town on the Sussex coast, the Financial Times reported Monday.

After delegates flooded party headquarters with motions critical of the US-led occupation, they lamented the continuing violence and demanding a date for withdrawal from the chaos-mired country.

The conference coincides with a closely-watched by-election in the Labour stronghold of Hartlepool, County Durham, where voters could punish Blair for taking Britain into the US-led war to occupy oil-rich Iraq.

The uncertain fate of Kenneth Bigley at the hands of an Iraqi militant group was also more highly likely to overshadow the conference.

Blair’s Credibility

Bigley’s brother Paul publicly criticized Blair for assuming a low profile during his brother’s ordeal.

“Mr Blair is a gentleman, he’s a statesman if you like, but I’m afraid to say, his sell-by date has really gone,” he said. “He has not got the credibility to negotiate the purchase of a bicycle.”

The United States and its chief ally launched their war on Iraq to oust Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s regime under the pretext of its possession of weapons of mass destruction.

But the latest report by top US weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, concluded that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, raising concerns the invasion of the oil-rich country was based on false pretexts.

Eighteen months after the April 2003 invasion, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called the US-led onslaught “illegal” and said it contravened the UN charter.

Muslim Vote

Blair further risks losing the Muslim vote in the next election with Muslim MPs warning that the eligible voters would desert Labour because of the government’s military involvement in Iraq.

Sadiq Khan told a fringe meeting organized by Muslims for Labour that “all the good work” on the domestic front was being overshadowed by widespread concern about foreign policy.

A recent British poll showed that Labour’s share of the British Muslim vote has fallen by a half due to the Iraq invasion.

The traditional Muslim support for Labour slumped from 75 percent at the last general election to only 38 percent now because of the war, which has also tarnished the image of Blair in the eyes of the Muslim community, according to a Guardian/ICM poll.

Adamant Blair

Earlier, Blair told the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost that he would not apologize for the Iraq war though admitting some mistakes.

Blair, keen to lead Labour to a third term in power in an election likely in May or June next year, had hoped that after 18 months of the Iraq invasion, he would be able to refocus attention on domestic issues such as health care and education reform.

Quizzed on reports he had considered resigning earlier this year, Blair replied: “I’m not the wobbling sort (hesitant),” the BBC News Online reported.

“What some people want me to do is to say sorry for getting rid of Saddam and that I cannot say because I do not believe it,” he said.

He went on: “When I hear people say because of the difficulties, we should pull our troops out, my response is that would be to surrender to the terrorists.”

With three mixed polls published Sunday – one in the News of the World putting the Tories ahead by 32% to 29% for the Lib Dems and Labour on 28% – it was a struggle.

Tory chairman Liam Fox derided confusion over what was running Labour’s election campaign.

“With an ongoing war in Iraq, the countryside in chaos and public services failing to improve, the public are getting extremely fed up with the selfish bickering of Labour Party leaders,” he told the BBC.