Protesters who took part in yesterday's massive anti-war march will share in the moral responsibility if Saddam Hussein remains in power to torture and kill his own people, British Labour Party chairman Dr John Reid said today.
Echoing Mr Tony Blair's message to Labour's spring conference in Glasgow yesterday , Dr Reid told protesters that the moral choice was not between war and peace but between doing something and doing nothing.
He denied that Britain was isolated internationally, insisting that the United Nations was unanimous in recognising the threat from Saddam and wanting to disarm him and divided only on the "nuances" of timing.
And he rejected suggestions that dissent within Labour over Iraq was putting Mr Blair's position in question.
Speakers at the conference today, including Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, were expected to call on the party to rally round its leader following the massive expression of opposition to his approach expressed in yesterday's marches in London, Glasgow and Belfast, which attracted around one million protesters.
Dr Reid told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "A great moral choice has been put before us by the people on the march yesterday. Let's face that moral choice.
"It is not a choice between peace and war. It is a choice between doing something and not doing anything.
"If you take the view that we should not do anything, you too have a moral responsibility, because by doing that you are sustaining the status quo under which there are people being murdered, tortured and dying and starving."
Saddam had only ever responded to the demands of the international community when the threat of force was deployed against him, said Dr Reid.
It was "completely unrealistic" to expect that he would co-operate with weapons inspections if the UN announced in advance that it would not use military force.