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Brown under pressure to apologise for Iraq

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Iraq is emerging as the biggest test of leadership for Gordon Brown as he prepares to take over as Britain's next prime minister with pressure mounting on him to apologise for the invasion and set a time-table for withdrawal of British troops.

On Wednesday, Harriet Harman, the high-profile Justice Minister and a Brown loyalist, joined calls for the "new leadership'' to acknowledge that Iraq had been a mistake. She said she voted for the invasion because she was told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but if she had known that the intelligence was wrong she would not have voted for it.

Ms. Harman, who is one of the contenders for the party's deputy leadership which will change hands at the same time as the change of guard take places at Downing Street next month, wanted Mr. Brown to recognise the public anger over Iraq.

Another senior party MP and a deputy leadership contender, Jon Cruddas, said an apology was needed to win back the trust of the people. Asked during a BBC debate whether he believed Mr. Brown should say sorry, he said: "I do, actually, as part of a general reconciliation with the British people for the disaster in Iraq.''

Mr. Cruddas demanded immediate withdrawal of British troops pointing out that the two premises on which Britain had gone to war in Iraq — namely, finding weapons of mass destruction and introducing liberal democracy — had both failed. He admitted that he "deeply'' regretted voting for the war and joined Ms. Harman in saying that if he had known at the time that Saddam had no WMDs he would have voted against it.

The remarks by Ms. Harman and Mr. Cruddas came as five Britons were kidnapped in Iraq provoking renewed attacks on Prime Minister Tony Blair's Iraq policy.

Mr. Brown has acknowledged his share of the "collective responsibility'' for the invasion and said "mistakes'' were made. But he has refused to commit himself to bringing the troops back.

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