British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair is facing growing signs of dissent within his own Labour party over his approach to the crisis on Iraq, the British press reported today.
A senior Labour member of parliament warned that Blair could face a repeat of the 1956 Suez crisis, when then prime minister Anthony Eden lost the premiership after taking Britain into a war without public support.
"There is a danger of getting into a conflict without the support of the country or parliament," Mr Clive Soley, former Labour party chairman, told the Sunday Times.
"You don't want to go down that route. That is what happened at Suez when the prime minister fell and the nation was divided," he said, according to the weekly newspaper.
Three Cabinet ministers were reported to have advised Blair that he must launch a campaign to "sell" his military strategy to the Labour party if he is to avoid a revolt among party members and supporters.
The Sunday Telegraphnamed Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong and Scotland Secretary Helen Liddell as the trio who delivered the message to Blair, but claimed the prime minister had responded that he was too busy to "hit the road" and speak to party members directly about the crisis.
A survey for the paper found that 69 percent of chief Labour activists expected members to quit the party if Britain went to war, with 5 percent saying they would resign themselves.
Some 89 percent of the 74 local party chairmen contacted by the paper said they opposed a war unless it was backed by a fresh UN resolution.
AFP