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Blair faces revolt

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair was on Tuesday facing a potential cross-party revolt in Parliament over a motion calling for a wide-ranging inquiry into Iraq invasion and its aftermath. With many of his own party MPs threatening to back the motion brought by two regional parties and supported by the Liberal Democrats, Mr. Blair's only hope of surviving the vote rested on Conservatives. But the latter were demanding a price for bailing him out.

Tories said they would save Mr. Blair from a humiliating defeat if he agreed to their demand for an inquiry into the Iraq fiasco, which could be held after British troops returned home. William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, said his party was prepared to abstain from voting if the Government promised the kind of inquiry it had suggested. "Most of us supported the invasion of Iraq and many of us still consider it was the right thing to do... but this is a separate issue... .Whatever one's view about the rights and wrongs of the invasion of Iraq, it's very important to learn about what's happened since then," he told the BBC. Hours before the vote, due to be taken late on Tuesday evening, the deadlock continued as the Government rejected the Tories' demand saying there had already been too many inquiries and another one would send out a signal of weakness to the "enemy.'' A defeat for the Government might trigger calls for Mr. Blair to resign.

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