Poll reveals Blair unpopular
Just over half of voters believe Tony Blair lied over the threat posed by Iraq and they want the Prime Minister to quit, according to a poll.
The NOP poll of 1003 people, published in the Independent on Saturday, showed 54 per cent believe Mr Blair lied and 51 per cent want him to resign.
The prime minister survived the results of the Hutton inquiry into the suicide of a Ministry of Defence weapons expert, which were revealed this week. However, he has been drawn into a new row over why he went to war in Iraq.
Mr Blair claims he did not know, when he won parliamentary backing for war in March last year, that the government’s 45-minute claim referred only to battlefield arms, not long-range missiles which could threaten other nations.
However, no one in government sought to correct the press when they seized on this intelligence, writing headlines suggesting Saddam had ballistic missiles which could have hit British interests in Cyprus.
The Conservatives have criticised Mr Blair’s apparent ignorance of such detail, particularly given the fact Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was aware of the limits of the intelligence.
The poll also implied that the public are unimpressed with Mr Blair setting up an inquiry into the intelligence about banned Iraqi weapons, which have not been found nearly 10 months after Saddam was toppled.
According to the results, 68 per cent believe the inquiry will be a “whitewash” while 23 per cent think it will be a “genuine attempt to find the truth”.
Even more worryingly for the prime minister, the poll, carried out between February 4 and 5, showed the Conservatives ahead in popularity. The Conservatives were on 36 per cent, Labour on 35 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 24 percent. Since Mr Blair came to power in 1997 he has rarely being behind in the polls.
The Chancellor Gordon Brown would become Prime Minister if Mr Blair did resign and the NOP poll showed that Labour would regain the lead if this happened. The Conservatives would be on 36 per cent, Labour on 37 and the Liberal Democrats on 22 per cent.
