LONDON, May 12: Britain’s aid minister Clare Short stormed out of government on Monday, accusing Prime Minister Tony Blair of breaking promises on Iraq and savaging his “presidential” style of rule.
In a dramatic resignation speech to parliament, Ms Short said she was shocked and ashamed by a British-backed UN draft resolution which would give Washington and its allies control over Iraq’s oil revenues.
“This resolution undermines all the commitments I have made in (parliament) and elsewhere about the reconstruction of Iraq,” the minister said. “Clearly this makes my position impossible.”
In a blunt attack on Mr Blair’s loyalty to US President George Bush, she said Britain was “making grave errors in providing cover for the US mistakes”, undermining international law and increasing risk of terrorist attacks.
Clare Short, 57, was the second senior minister to resign from Tony Blair’s cabinet over the Iraq invasion, which was opposed by many members of his Labour party and which triggered a major parliamentary rebellion in March.
Within minutes of her decision — which came as little surprise after an earlier threat to resign on the eve of the invasion — Mr Blair’s office said it was replacing Short with junior Foreign Office minister Baroness Amos.
The speed of the move suggested Blair was preparing to remove her anyway and analysts doubted her exit would have much impact on a premier riding high in opinion polls and facing little threat from an unpopular opposition Conservative Party.
But the scathing criticism from a senior minister, widely admired for her tireless work promoting international development during six years in office, will provide plenty of ammunition for critics within Mr Blair’s ruling Labour Party.
In one of the most personal resignation attacks the British parliament has seen for years, the outgoing minister accused the premier of bullying the UN Security Council over Iraq’s reconstruction.
The British government “is supporting the US in trying to bully the UN Security Council into a resolution that gives the coalition the power to establish an Iraqi government and control the use of oil for reconstruction with only a minor role for the UN,” Clare Short said.
Her comments were regularly punctuated by gasps of surprise and intakes of breath from MPs, while Foreign Secretary Jack Straw looked on stony-faced.
“The problem now is that the mistakes that were made in the period leading up to the (Iraq) conflict are being repeated in the post-conflict situation,” Ms Short said.
“In particular, the UN mandate necessary to bring into being a legitimate Iraqi government is not being supported by the UK government,” she said.
In a shocking personal attack Short accused Blair of centralizing Britain’s political power into his own hands and the hands of an increasingly small number of advisers who, she said, “make decisions in private without proper discussion.”
“To the prime minister I would say that he has achieved great things since 1997 but, paradoxically, he is in danger of destroying his legacy as he becomes increasingly obsessed by his place in history,” Ms Short said.
After resigning, Short told Channel 4 News: “I am at the end of the line. I have tried and tried to be helpful and constructive but I cannot defend this.”
The prime minister replied to Short’s resignation in a letter, writing: “I am afraid I do not understand your point about the UN. We are in the process of negotiating the UN resolution at the moment.”
“As for who should lead the process of reconstruction, I have always been clear that this is not a matter of the UN leading or the coalition leading. The two should work together,” he wrote.
“That is exactly what the resolution stipulates,” Blair wrote.—AFP