Blair attempts to stifle any Labor revolt against the war decision

LONDON, March 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a new sign of mounting opposition to his war schemes even inside his own cabinet, British Prime Minister Tony Blair lost a third minister on Tuesday, March 18.

Home Office Minister John Denham resigned his post protesting Blair's backing for an unjustified and un-mandated war on Iraq, few hours after another minister and the leader of the House of Commons quit the cabinet for the same reasons.

Denham said he was stepping down because he could not vote in support of the government for a House of Commons motion to endorse a military strike on Baghdad later in the day.

"I met the prime minister this morning to explain my reasons," Denham said, adding he hoped to speak during a 10-hour debate on Iraq in the Commons in which Blair would seek to grant an authorization for the participation of 28,000 British forces in the U.S.-led aggression on Iraq.

A junior health minister, Lord Hunt, told BBC Radio 4's Today program earlier in the day that "I have agonized over this issue for many weeks but I have decided today to resign from the government because I don't support the pre-emptive action which is going to be taken without broad international support or indeed the clear support of the British people."

The resignation came just a day after leader of the House of Commons and former foreign secretary Robin Cook, resigned from the government protesting Blair's push for war without a United Nations mandate.

U.S. President George W. Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face invasion, but Blair, his closest war ally, would be battling to win parliamentary support for his hard-line policy in the Tuesday meeting of the Commons.

Ahead of the debate, rebel MPs warned they would table an amendment to the government's motion stating there is no moral justification for war without a new resolution, the BBC News Online said.

Last time 122 Labor MPs voted against the government, but Ex-Labor whip and leading rebel Graham Allen said that by close of business on Monday, March 17, 120 MP's of all parties had already signed the amendment.

"Signatories include parliamentary private secretaries who have not previously voted against the rush to unauthorized war," he said.

The amendment was drafted by Allen, former Tory government frontbencher Douglas Hogg and former cabinet minister Chris Smith.

The Stop The War Coalition is this Saturday organizing a repeat of last month's peace rally, which attracted between 750,000 and two million people.

Rally for War

In the Meantime, Blair called together his most senior cabinet ministers to prepare the ground for war against Iraq and handle all dissent voices within his cabinet.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, had talks with Blair at Downing Street several hours before an emergency meeting of the full Cabinet, The Independent reported.

This small group will form the nucleus of Blair's War Cabinet.

Other permanent members will be David Blunkett, the Home Secretary and Geoff Hoon, the Defense Secretary, who will usually be accompanied by Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, the Chief of the Defense Staff.

John Reid, the Labor Party chairman, will also join the War Cabinet, which is likely to meet daily after war begins.

Reid will communicate the Government's message to the public and try to allay fears inside the Labor Party.

Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, will join the group if she decides to stay in the Cabinet, said the paper, adding that although she quit the Labor front bench in protest at its support for the 1991 Gulf War she was a member of the War Cabinet set up to co-ordinate military action in Afghanistan after the 11 September terrorist attacks.

Downing Street officials hope that Short, who had earlier threaten to quit the Blair government in protest at its Iraq policy, will play a key role in the rebuilding of Iraq after a war and the humanitarian relief effort.

Although opposition still outweighs support for the offensive, a poll conducted for the Guardian found that more 9 per cent people now back war.

In a Commons statement setting out why Britain and its allies were no longer seeking a UN resolution further to 1441, Straw acknowledged MPs were about to embark on their most important debate for many years, the BBC News Online reported.

But he warned that giving more time to Iraq could "only bring comfort to tyrants and emasculate the authority of the United Nations", it added.

Telephone Blitz

In yet another effort to limit the scale of the rebellion when the Commons holds its vote on Iraq, the  Cabinet heavyweights mounted a telephone blitz of Labor MPs.

Potential rebels, who have received up to three calls from Labor whips, were surprised when they were telephoned by a senior minister pleading with them to support the Government, The Independent reported.

Those involved in the ring-round included the Chancellor, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the Environment and Rural Affairs Secretary.

Blair's long-term survival as Prime Minister could hinge on the scale of the rebellion at 10pm tonight in the most crucial vote since Labor came to power in 1997.

When 121 Labor MPs voted against the Government over Iraq last month, party whips feared another 50 could join a rebellion if Blair failed to win a new U.N. resolution. Although he has not achieved that, the Commons arithmetic has changed since the last vote. The betting at Westminster last night was the rebellion would be on a similar scale.

"Unreasonable"

Some MPs who backed Blair reluctantly last time but threatened to defy him in the absence of a U.N. mandate have changed their minds and will support the Government.

Those MPs cite several reasons.

Several have been won round by the Government's attacks on Jacques Chirac, the French President, for saying last week that France would veto a pro-war resolution under any circumstances, The Independent reported.

That played into Blair's hands: although he set much store by a new U.N. mandate, he also gave himself an escape hatch by saying that he might ignore an "unreasonable" veto.

Another factor is a backlash among mainstream Labor MPs against the attempt by the hard-left Campaign Group of MPs to use the Iraq crisis to topple Blair by asking Labor's national executive committee to call a special party conference – the mechanism needed to trigger a leadership election.

However, two opinions in Tuesday's newspapers suggest public opinion is shifting from opposition to war.