Call for Blair to postpone Caribbean holiday while Mid East in crisis

Tony Blair

Tony Blair will defy calls by Labour MPs for him to postpone his three-week Caribbean holiday to focus on the crisis in the Middle East.

Downing Street said last night the Prime Minister would go ahead with his holiday plans in spite of the growing anxiety in his Cabinet about his tacit support for the military action.

Mr Blair will use a monthly press conference in Downing Street today to defend his support for George W Bush over the Middle East before handing over to John Prescott, the deputy Prime Minister, for the summer.

"He has no plans to change his holiday arrangements.

The German Chancellor Merkel has been on holiday all the time this has been going on and she is perfectly able to have intensive discussions," said a senior Number Ten aide.

"He can do the work if he is required to do so, just as he worked intensively over the weekend while he was in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He can do that from his holiday."

Labour MPs last night were queuing up to criticise Mr Blair for leaving the country while the fighting in the Lebanon threatens to escalate.

There are also concerns that he will be seen relaxing on a beach while more British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are being injured or killed.

"UK policy is plainly determined by him. He just cannot direct that policy from the beach," said Harry Cohen, a leftwing Labour MP.

"I also support a recall of Parliament. There are huge issues to be discussed - the lack of a ceasefire, Bush's strategy for the Middle East to be reshaped, and the use of British bases to supply arms to the Israelis in breach of our own arms embargo. But the House isn't due to meet until October. It's madness."

The recall of Parliament was demanded by Mohammed Sarwar, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, who has condemned the Israeli action as 'disproportionate'.

He was gaining support for a round-robin letter demanding the recall of the Commons among Labour MPs.

There were also calls for Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, to postpone her caravan holiday in Europe.

Roger Berry, chairman of the all-party committee on strategic export controls, also attacked the Government for failing to monitor whether British arms and defence components had been used aggressively by the Israel government.

He warned that serious questions were raised by the Government's decision to allow planeloads of "bunker-busting" bombs to land at British airports.

Ministers are likely to face a raft of questions about the affair when parliament returns.

Mr Berry said: "My personal view is that there need to be a lot of very hard questions to be asked about the role of anybody arming Israel in the current circumstances."

Andrew Mackinlay, a Labour member of the Commons select committee on Foreign Affairs, said the committee was likely to be recalled in September to cross examine the Foreign Secretary over reports that she had vainly urged Mr Blair to press for a ceasefire when he met President Bush.

The committee chairman, Labour MP Mike Gapes, told members to stand by for a recall when the Commons rose last week for the summer recess.

Members are also anxious to question Mrs Beckett about the use of British airports for US arms shipments to Israel.

Mr Mackinlay said Mr Blair should recall the Cabinet before going on holiday to make sure he has their authority for the policy he is pursuing.

Mr Mackinlay said holding a meeting was better than allowing Cabinet ministers to signal dissent privately in the newspapers as they had this week.

"It is a grave situation and people in the Cabinet should not be doing things by spin. Before Mr Blair goes on holiday, Mr Blair should seek Cabinet collective responsibility for the policy.

There should be full knowledge and full consent of the Cabinet. That is their duty."

Labour MP Joan Ruddock, a former leader of CND, said there was 'despair' in the Labour Party over Mr Blair's support for Israel and the Bush administration.

"There is enormous anger. There has to be a change of direction but the damage has been done," she said.

The Tories were also split last night as Lord Kalms, the former head of Dixons, attacked William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, for criticising the Israeli action as 'disproportionate'.

Writing in The Spectator, Lord Kalms said it was 'downright dangerous', adding: "As on other issues, is the party changing its ground?" But Oliver Letwin, the party's policy chief, reinforced Mr Hague's criticism.

He said Lord Kalms was a 'great man but we don't agree with him about this.'

- INDEPENDENT