UK poll: Blair lied on Iraq

BOURNEMOUTH, England -- About 60 percent of Britons believe Prime Minister Tony Blair lied over the threat posed by Iraq in the run-up to war, a new poll shows.

The poll by NOP for The Independent newspaper comes as Blair faces one of his toughest speeches to his ruling Labour Party in Bournemouth on the south England coast Tuesday.

Blair, whose popularity ratings have dived since the war, can take comfort from other poll findings.

Only 41 percent of people surveyed said they wanted Blair to resign, while 52 percent said they wanted him to stay on.

The poll also showed that replacing him with finance minister Gordon Brown -- who many in the party would like to see as their new leader -- would not boost the party's appeal by much.

With Blair as leader, Labour had a nine-point lead over the opposition Conservatives, while if Brown were to take over the party's lead would increase by only one percentage point, the poll showed.

In a heavily loaded speech on Monday, Brown said the party needed "not just a program but a soul" and that the Conservatives would be beaten not by imitation but by "Labour reforms grounded in Labour values."

At the weekend Blair admitted he had been "battered" by recent events but said he had no intention of resigning and that he would lead the Labour Party into the next general election despite plummeting popularity ratings.

In his speech, Blair is expected to make no apologies for the war in Iraq, saying the world -- and Britain -- is now a safer place because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.

He also will tell the conference there can be no turning back from controversial policies on hospitals and education.

CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley described Blair's speech as "a tougher task than he's ever had yet."

"He's got to find some way of reconnecting with a party which feels he took the wrong path on the war in Iraq and which is very uncomfortable with a lot of the reforms he's trying to push through in public services in Britain -- in education, health, other issues like that," Oakley said.

"He's fallen out with the trade unions, the key backers of his party. Somehow or other he's got to find a way of reconnecting with the party on those key issues and of convincing them that he was right on Iraq."

Anti-war protesters are already angry over a decision by the Labour Party not to discuss the Iraq war at this week's conference.

Party managers defeated a motion to discuss the war in favor of domestic issues at the annual meeting. (Full story)

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