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Nuclear rebellion shows Blair a "lame duck," says former speaker

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, March 15, IRNA
UK-Blair-Trident rebellion
Prime Minister Tony Blair's authority is being called into question following the biggest rebellion by nearly half of Labour's backbench MPs over his controversial plans to renew the country's Trident nuclear missile system.

The plans were approved by Parliament Wednesday night with the support of Conservative MPs, but former House of Commons speaker Baroness Boothroyd said she did not think "any prime minister wants to get some major issue like that on opposition votes."

"But he had no alternative but to rely on those votes," Boothroyd said.

"He's losing authority and he's now becoming a lame duck, I'm sorry to say," she told BBC Newsnight.

Some 167 MPs supported an amendment to the vote, calling for the decision to be delayed. This included 95 Labour backbenchers, more than enough to overturn the ruling party's 67 seat majority without the government receiving support from Conservative MPs.

The revolt included 16 of Blair's former ministers, including four who held cabinet posts. Four junior members of the government had announced their resignations to join the biggest Labour rebellion since the 2003 Iraq war.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who led his party in voting for a delay, warned that the result was a "bit like the Iraq vote once again," when Blair was also rescued by the main opposition Conservatives.

"The government's got its way, but it's a humiliation for the prime minister that on a policy to which he has attached his own personal reputation he is unable to carry the House of Commons without the votes of the Conservative Party," Campbell said.

Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond, who also voted against the government, said he believed most Scottish MPs from all parties had opposed the plans, and warned that it could affect Labour's chances in the forthcoming elections to the Scottish parliament.

The government was "trying to impose on an unwilling country nuclear weapons of mass destruction for the next 50 years - it's just not on," Salmond was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Several British newspapers Thursday also focused on the rebellion, including the Guardian, which said the vote reflects the low morale within the Labour Party.

The Times said the scale of the revolt confirmed Blair's authority has all but disappeared.

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