Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Brown promises to expand war chest to meet Iraqi threat

Andrew Grice,Paul Waugh
Wednesday 05 March 2003 01:00 GMT
Comments

Gordon Brown promised the Government would spend "whatever it takes" to deprive Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction.

In another sign that a military conflict is imminent, the Chancellor said yesterday that he was ready to increase the £1.75 billion he has already earmarked for a possible war. Treasury officials said it was too early to predict the cost.

Mr Brown told a conference at Canary Wharf in London: "I make no apology for saying we will spend what it takes to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons by states that defy the international community and to advance the cause of disarmament."

Giving his personal backing to Tony Blair's stance on Iraq, he added: "The international community must not stand by whilst a regime that proliferates weapons of mass destruction defies more than a decade of international agreements."

The Chancellor denied that finding more money for a Gulf War would jeopardise Labour's plans to boost spending on health and education despite this week's warning by the International Monetary Fund about the state of the British economy. "We will discharge our international responsibilities and we will also discharge our domestic responsibilities," he said.

His open-ended "war chest" angered Labour MPs who oppose military action. Yesterday they launched a campaign to "reclaim" the Labour Party from Mr Blair by urging opponents of a war to join the party.

Alan Simpson, chairman of Labour Against the War, said: "This is both pro-peace and pro-Labour. It may be a battle for the soul of the Labour Party. If there is a gap between the leadership and the membership it is the membership that has to reclaim the confidence and attempt to change the leadership by saying 'this is not the direction we want to go in'."

Tony Benn, the former cabinet minister, said: "If this Prime Minister takes us to war in any way it will amount to a personal resignation from the Labour Party. That is something I do not want to see within the Labour Party. I want to see it united."

John Reid, the Labour chairman, said he would not turn away anti-war campaigners who have been urged to join the party by rebel MPs. He would be "delighted" by any applications to boost the party's membership, even if they were from those opposed to Government policy on Iraq.

"This is a democratic party. We accept people who wish to come into the party. We don't require people to agree with every single aspect of this policy," he said.

Mr Reid said it was "quite untrue" that there had been mass resignations from the party, and he claimedmore people were joining than leaving the party in recent weeks. But the Labour chairman conceded that Mr Blair could suffer a short-term loss of popularity over Iraq in the run-up to the May council elections. "No matter how unpopular that may be in the short term, I do not believe in the long term doing the right thing will remain unpopular," he said.

Thousands of anti-war delegates from theatres, schools and unions will gather in London next week to hold an "alternative parliament". The People's Assembly Against the War will meet at the Central Hall, Westminster, on 12 March.

¿ Public support in Britain for a war on Iraq has grown to 75 per cent - but only if weapons inspectors find their "smoking gun" and military action is backed by the UN, an opinion poll published today says. The poll, conducted by Mori, found that only 24 per cent were in favour of Britain joining a unilateral US-led-attack.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in