24 January 2007

Blair rejects call for timetable on Iraq troop withdrawal

Prime Minister Tony Blair has dismissed a call to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, saying that it would be "disastrous".

The Liberal Democrats had called for the process of the withdrawal of UK troops from Iraq to begin in May and be completed by October.

However, Mr Blair said that to do so would "send the most disastrous signal to the people of Iraq."

The Prime Minister made his comments during Prime Minister's Questions, because he was missing the debate on Iraq in order to deliver a speech on public services at the CBI conference.

Confronting Mr Blair at Prime Minister's Questions, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said that the Prime Minister should attend the Iraq debate - the first full discussion of the issue in the Commons since 2004 - in order to debate the issue, adding that he should be leading the debate instead of Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

However, Mr Blair said that he was debating the issue with Sir Menzies "now" and said that an "arbitrary timetable" for withdrawal was unworkable.

The Conservatives had also echoed the Liberal Democrats call for Mr Blair to lead the government's case in the Iraq debate.

Commenting ahead of the debate, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "He (Mr Blair) was in the House to lead us to war. He should now be in the House to reassure Parliament and the country that the government understands the gravity of situation in Iraq and has a clear strategy for making Iraq safe and stable."

However, Downing Street said that it was not normal practice for the Prime Minister to lead a debate on foreign policy, a point echoed by Mrs Beckett who opened the debate by accusing the Conservatives of "double standards", saying that previous Conservative Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major had not attended foreign policy debates.

(KMcA)