London, Mar 19: British Prime Minister Tony Blair won backing from parliament for war against Iraq, but suffered a blow to his authority after MPs from his own party staged a huge rebellion against his hardline stance. After a highly charged nine-and-a-half-hour emergency debate yesterday in the run up to a likely conflict, the House of Commons backed a motion that Britain should use "all means necessary" to ensure the disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The ballot was won by 412 votes to 149. But minutes earlier, 217 British parliamentarians out of a total of 659 voted for an amendment which stated that the case for war with Iraq had "not yet been established". Over 130 MPs from the ruling Labour party were believed to be among the parliamentarians who voted for the amendment, submitted by rebel Labour lawmakers. Even though the amendment was defeated, the size of the rebellion is an embarrassment for Blair's stance in leading Britain towards a US-led war on Iraq without a fresh UN resolution.
It was a further severe setback for Blair after the resignation earlier of three of his ministers, including former foreign secretary Robin Cook, over military action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Bureau Report