Under siege from every side

Labour MPs attack Blair's stance / Short warns of refugee disaster / France says world is against war

Pressure is mounting on Tony Blair over Iraq after MPs from all parties repeatedly attacked his policy yesterday, a cabinet minister publicly criticised the United States and the French ambassador added a withering critique of his own.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, failed in an attempt to calm the fears of Labour MPs by giving them a six-page dossier answering criticisms of Mr Blair's stance. Mr Straw was given a rough ride at a private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), while Mr Blair faced hostile questions from Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs at Prime Minister's Questions.

Cabinet tensions resurfaced when Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, warned a Commons committee that Iraq faced a "disastrous humanitarian situation". She said: "Getting the US military to take on humanitarian considerations is and was very difficult."

She added: "There are a lot of military people who think that it will all be over very quickly and that people will be pleased not to be under Saddam, but these other risks are there."

At a heated 90-minute PLP meeting devoted to Iraq, 19 speakers challenged the Government's line and only seven defended it. Alice Mahon, the MP for Halifax, complained of "dirty tricks" against anti-war MPs after Clive Soley, the PLP's former chairman, said the alternative to showing loyalty to Mr Blair was to end up siding with Saddam.

Alan Simpson, MP for Nottingham South, told Mr Straw: "You should be more concerned with the prospect of the disintegration of the Labour Party than engaging in a war which the public believe to be quite immoral."

Some 41 MPs from the three main parties signed a Commons motion saying Britain should not go to war in Iraq until "all other policy options have been exhausted". The MPs demanded "clear evidence" that Iraq poses an imminent threat and for any war to be explicitly authorised by the UN Security Council and the Commons.

The sponsors included two Conservative former cabinet ministers, Douglas Hogg and John Gummer, and the former Labour minister Chris Smith, who said: "The Iraq issue is a very important point in the life of the PLP. It has galvanised public opinion in a way I have not seen on any other issue in the past six years."

Mr Blair told MPs: "The moral choice in relation to this is a moral choice that has to weigh up the moral consequences of war. But the alternative is to carry on with a sanctions regime which, because of the way Saddam Hussein implements it, leads to thousands of people dying needlessly in Iraq every year.''

Meanwhile, Gerard Errera, the French ambassador in London, denied that France was "posturing" over Iraq and appeared to dash Mr Blair's hopes that Paris would not veto a new UN resolution authorising a war. He said France would defend its "deeply held convictions" without apologies.

In an article in The Independent, M. Errera said: "As for the argument that France is chickening out, I would merely suggest to try it out on the families of the French soldiers who paid the price of blood in the Balkan wars, in Afghanistan against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban, or in the Gulf War."

In another sign that military action in the Gulf is imminent, Gordon Brown significantly increased the money set aside in the war reserve from £1bn to £1.75bn in the current financial year.The Chancellor told the Commons the money would be available to the Ministry of Defence "only if and when necessary".