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Blair admits `mistakes` on Iraq war, says Labour MP

IRNA

London, Oct 24, IRNA - A Labour MP, who voted in support of launching 
military action against Iraq, was reported Friday to have admitted 
that Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government have accepted 
mistakes over the decision to go to war. 
"Tony Blair has admitted he made mistakes. He has said as much, 
and said we should have gone to France and Germany to offer the US a 
deal through the UN," Martin Linton revealed, when facing a barrage of
criticism at an anti-war meeting this week. 
According to the local Wandsworth Guardian, the MP for Battersea, 
south London, conceded that the anti-war arguments were "very good" 
and said that he did "not pretend it happened in the right way." 
"The timing was completely wrong and we were bounced into action 
by the US. It was completely wrong that the US sent troops to Iraq in 
anticipation of the war," he said, while insisting that he still stood
by his vote in March to support the use of military action. 
His comments are thought to be the first admission by a Labour 
backbench MP that Blair has accepted he was wrong to have unilaterally
supported the US against other major European countries. 
The local paper quoted a representative from the Stop the War 
Coalition, saying that Linton had come to the meeting "because he is 
worried there may be another Brent East situation" when Labour lost 
one of its safest parliamentary seats due to the anti-war campaign. 
HC/211 
End