Why the Tories backed the war

Tories are used to getting blamed for many things, but to be blamed for a Labour Cabinet minister’s lack of principles is surely a first. That was their fate at the hands of Clare Short. For weeks, people have struggled to understand the former International Development Secretary’s failure to resign after calling the Prime Minister’s policy on Iraq ‘reckless’. Now we know that her hypocrisy was all the fault of the Tories. ‘Because the official opposition was voting with the government, a conflict was unavoidable,’ Short told Parliament. ‘I decided I should not weaken the government at that time.’

One of the most nauseating images of the postwar spin operation is that of a beleaguered prime minister gathering his family around him on the eve of war to warn them that he could be about to lose his job. Now Short has confirmed what few reporters bothered to mention: thanks to the Tories, Blair was never in the slightest danger of losing his job.