Short faces sack over fresh refusal to support the war

Clare Short's cabinet future was thrown into doubt again yesterday after she pointedly refused to say Britain was right to go to war in Iraq.

The Secretary of State for International Development angered Downing Street by side-stepping questions on whether the war was justified. She also appeared to criticise British and American troops for failing to make a "bigger effort" to stop looting in Iraq.

Ms Short, who did not carry out her very public threat to resign over the war, repeatedly refused to say whether the war had been a price worth paying.

Asked on BBC Radio 4 whether she agreed the war was justified, she said: "Honestly, I don't think that is interesting or important or useful. What we should all do, as I have made clear, is unite around what needs to be done. Honestly, going back there, what use is that?"

Asked whether she accepted collective cabinet responsibility, Ms Short said she was "a member of the daily Cabinet, we are working together". But she added: "All human beings have different stresses in their priorities and mine is the humanitarian and the reconstruction."

A Blair aide said: "If she wants to stay in the Cabinet, she will have to accept the rules of collective responsibility."

Ms Short told the BBC a "massively bigger effort" was needed to end looting and chaos in Iraq. She said: "We had looting in Basra but it is a lot better now. It is an absolute priority that US troops should bring order to Baghdad, which is obviously a bigger task."

Responding to Ms Short's remarks, Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "It is not enough for Clare Short simply to wring her hands. The Government should take urgent action."

Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces minister, said yesterday that some British forces had returned and others would follow as more areas of Iraq fell to the Allies. Ships, planes and helicopters would be withdrawn, he said, including the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which would return to Britain. HMS Marlborough, HMS Liverpool and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary supply ship Grey Rover would deploy to the Far East for exercises, he said.

In Britain funerals were held for two of the soldiers who have died in the Gulf. In Skipton, North Yorkshire, hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respects to Royal Marines Captain Philip Guy, aged 29, who died in a helicopter crash in Kuwait. Leading the mourners was his wife, Helen, who gave birth to the couple's daughter Emily, shortly after his death.

In Llandudno, north Wales, mourners paid tribute to Lance Bombardier Llywelyn Evans, 24, who also died in the crash.

Ruth Kelly, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, suggested it could take years to find evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. She told BBC Radio 4's Any Questions programme last night: "Just to give a sort of parallel answer, there has been an ongoing situation in Northern Ireland, a much smaller country, for the last 30 years and it's not the case that the police force or the army can find caches of weapons very easily."

* The body of Terry Lloyd, the ITN correspondent killed in Iraq, was due to be flown back to Britain last night.