Blair flies back - to Iraq row

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has flown back to Britain today into a major row with a significant element within the Labour Party over his threat to use military action to topple Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Mr Blair was due back in London after a speech in the US last night in which, while pledging that there would be no ‘‘precipitive action’’, he warned Saddam that he had to allow weapons inspectors back into his country ‘‘any time, any place that the international community demands’’.

The Prime Minister’s toughest talk yet on Iraq came in a speech at the George Bush Senior Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, after two days of talks with the present President, George W Bush.

Mr Blair said: ‘‘We must be prepared to act where terrorism or weapons of mass destruction threaten us.

‘‘The fight against international terrorism is right. We should pursue it vigorously, not just in Afghanistan but elsewhere ... Since September 11 the action has been considerable, in many countries, but there should be no let up.

‘‘If necessary the action should be military and again, if necessary and justified, it should involve regime change.’’

In recent weeks nearly 150 backbench MPs, most of them Labour and several of them former Government ministers, have signed a Commons early day motion expressing ‘‘deep unease’’ at Britain’s potential involvement in any military action against Iraq.

One of the EDM’s signatories, former Labour minister Glenda Jackson, immediately branded Mr Blair’s comments ‘‘irresponsible’’.

Ms Jackson, the MP for Hampstead and Highgate, said: ‘‘I think it is very irresponsible to be upping the rhetoric with regard to any possible action on Iraq without the relevant evidence that Saddam is engaged in the creation of weapons of mass destruction and has the ability to deliver them.

‘‘Until that potential has been verified, the international community should be concentrating on what is already happening in the Middle East.’’

And Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, Father of the House of Commons and a persistent critic of those who advocate an attack on Iraq, said he expected the Prime Minister to be present at a regular meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party at the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Mr Dalyell said opposition within the party to the line being taken by the Prime Minister on Iraq went far beyond his usual left-wing critics.

‘‘This is not just the usual suspects,’’ said Mr Dalyell. ‘‘There will have to be a very serious meeting of the PLP on Wednesday.’’

In his speech, Mr Blair said the international community could not intervene in all cases ‘‘but where countries are engaged in the terror or weapons of mass destruction business, we should not shirk from confronting them’’.

He said he hoped Syria, Iran and North Korea could be persuaded to reform.

But he went on: ‘‘As for Iraq, I know some fear precipitive action. They needn’t. We will proceed, as we did after September 11, in a calm, measured, sensible but firm way.

‘‘But leaving Iraq to develop weapons of mass destruction in flagrant breach of no less than nine separate United Nations Security Council resolutions, refusing still to allow weapons inspectors back to do their work properly, is not an option.

The regime of Saddam is detestable, brutal, repressive, political opponents routinely tortured and executed.

‘‘It is a regime without a qualm in sacrificing the lives of its citizens to preserve itself, or starting wars with neighbouring states and it has used chemical weapons against its own people.

‘‘The moment for decision on how to act is not yet with us. But to allow weapons of mass destruction to be developed by a state like Iraq without let or hindrance would be grossly to ignore the lesson of September 11 and we will not do it.

‘‘The message to Saddam is clear: he has to let the inspectors back in, anyone, any time, any place, that the international community demands.’’