UK minister Short quits over Iraq

Short had first threatened to resign from the government in March. Story Tools

LONDON, England -- Clare Short, a British Cabinet member who once described Prime Minister Tony Blair's policy on Iraq "reckless," resigned Monday and accused the government of helping the U.S. to "bully" the United Nations.

Short, who backtracked on her original threat to quit in the run up to the war, ended weeks of speculation by stepping down from her post as International Development Secretary.

In a strongly worded statement to the House of Commons, Short criticized Blair for creating a "presidential system" of government that has seen "the centralization of power into the hands of the prime minister and an increasingly small number of advisers."

Short accused Blair of breaching assurances he had given her on the role of the United Nations in governing post-conflict Iraq.

In a letter to the prime minister early Monday, Short accused Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of "secretly" negotiating a U.N. Security Council resolution that contradicted assurances she had given in the Commons.

"I'm ashamed that the UK government ... supported the United States in trying to bully the U.N.," she told the Commons.

She also criticized the "style and organization of our government which is undermining trust and straining party loyalty in a way that is completely unnecessary."

Short said she was "very sad" to leave her position, but added: "Hard as it was, it was the right thing to do."

Baroness Amos, currently minister for Africa, will replace Short in the Cabinet, Blair's office said.

Born Valerie Amos in Guyana, she becomes Britain's second-ever black Cabinet minister. Paul Boateng, appointed chief secretary to the Treasury last year, was the first.

Short, a leading figure on the left of Britain's Labour party, threatened to resign in March if Britain joined a U.S.-led war against Iraq without U.N. backing.

"I will not uphold a breach of international law or this undermining of the U.N. and will resign from the government," Short said at the time.

Media criticism

Short, who resigned a Labour Party position to protest against the party's backing of the 1991 Gulf War, said Blair's handling of the Iraq crisis was "reckless," throwing into doubt her position within the Cabinet.

She was later persuaded by Blair to stay in the government, a U-turn which prompted media criticism in Britain.

"I'm very sorry because I thought she was an absolutely first rate Secretary of State for International Development," Labour parliamentarian and former Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson told Sky Television Monday.

"On another level I'm not that surprised she has chosen to resign. I think her position was becoming more and more untenable."

Blair had made it clear he would like a second Security Council resolution before forcefully disarming Saddam Hussein but he said he was willing to back Washington without approval from the United Nations.

While the prime minister supported a U.N. approach to pressuring Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to relinquish his alleged chemical and biological weapons, he threw his backing behind the war effort when a U.N. resolution authorizing force failed to materialize.

Blair's staunch support for U.S. President George W. Bush has seen his opinion poll popularity rating slump.

In February, 122 Labour lawmakers voted against the government and supported a rebel motion that said the case for war was "unproven." The split over Iraq was a major blow to the British ruling party.

Three other ministers -- former foreign secretary Robin Cook and two junior ministers did resign before the war in protest.

In the British government, the prime minister does not need Parliament's authorization to wage war.

Last week, Short ran into fresh trouble with Blair when she failed to vote for controversial government plans to reform healthcare, an issue on which more than 60 members of the ruling Labour Party rebelled.

Her department said she had merely made a mistake about the timing of the vote but some members of parliament called for her head. Short also missed the weekly meeting of Blair's Cabinet last Thursday, unusual for ministers unless they are abroad.

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