LONDON, April 26: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior ministers were braced to resign if a key vote in parliament last month on the Iraq war went against the government, British newspapers reported Saturday.

In an interview with The Times, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw indicated that had a record revolt by MPs from the ruling Labour party in the House of Commons on March 18 been much bigger it would have been the end for both him and Blair.

In such a situation, British troops might have been left on the borders of Iraq, unavailable for use by the United States in the battle to topple Saddam Hussein, Straw suggested.

Support for the government by the opposition Conservative party meant it was highly unlikely that Blair would lose the key vote.

Straw told the paper: “I was simply conscious of the fact that if it went wrong — if we did not get the support we needed in the Commons — he (Blair) would almost certainly go and I would go with him.”—AFP