Commons Debate: Mr Tony Blair is expected to address the British people later this week after winning parliamentary approval for war with Iraq, despite a slightly increased Labour rebellion.
The British Prime Minister won last night's Commons vote on a motion supporting the use of "all means necessary" to ensure Iraq's disarmament by 412 votes to 149, an overall government majority of 263.
Mr Blair's victory was assured after MPs, including a majority of Labour members, first rejected an amendment, tabled by former Labour minister Mr Chris Smith and former Conservative minister Mr Douglas Hogg, declaring the case for war "not yet established, especially given the absence of specific UN authorisation".
The amendment - which went on to pledge total support for British forces in the event of military action and hopes for a swift conclusion to any conflict with "minimum casualties" on all sides - was lost by 396 votes to 217.
And a day of drama at Westminster saw the overall government casualty toll rise to seven, with three parliamentary private secretaries also quitting, and Mr Robin Cook's PPS automatically losing his post.
It was impossible to assess the benefit in voting terms to Mr Blair of Ms Clare Short's sensational decision to resile from her threat to quit the cabinet over the absence of specific UN mandates covering both military action and the post-Saddam reconstruction of Iraq.
However, the compelling discipline for the majority of Labour MPs was undoubtedly the imminence of conflict and a passionate speech by Mr Blair in which he hinted he would resign if parliament voted to block the commitment of British troops.
Assured Conservative support but desperate not to be dependent on them for his parliamentary mandate, Mr Blair appealed for Labour loyalty, telling MPs that failure to enforce UN Resolution 1441 would be a "dangerous indulgence" which would render future conflicts "infinitely worse and more devastating".
The outcome of this issue, he said, would now determine more than the fate of the Iraqi regime and the Iraqi people for so long "brutalised" by Saddam Hussein: it would determine "the pattern of international politics for the next generation".
Directly repudiating Mr Cook without mentioning him by name, Mr Blair told the House: "We must face the consequences of the actions we advocate. For me, that means all the dangers of war. But for others, opposed to this course, it means that the Iraqi people, whose only true hope of liberation lies in the removal of Saddam, for them, the darkness will close back over them again; and he will be free to take his revenge upon those he must know wish him gone."
Of those like Mr Cook urging that British troops be pulled back, Mr Blair demanded: "What then? What will Saddam feel? Strengthened beyond measure. What will the other states who tyrannise their people, the terrorists who threaten our existence, what will they take from that? That the will confronting them is decaying and feeble."
To retreat now, he insisted, would put at hazard all they held dear, and, with it plainly, his leadership. "Tell our allies that at the very moment of actionThat Britain faltered. I will not be party to such a course. This is not a time to falter."
Explaining her decision not to resign, Ms Short, the International Development Secretary, suggested it would have been "cowardly" to do so.
Accepting that she would be "vilified" for her U-turn on a promise originally volunteered to the BBC, she said: "It is easier to go. I would be more popular if I went but the truth is I would be copping out. If I think Tony has no option, then it is cheap of me to resign, as though he could do something different now. But I know I'm going to have a really hard time."
Home Office Minister Mr John Denham, who did resign along with Health Minister Lord Hunt, told the House it was US "disdain" for international opinion which had led to the failure at the United Nations.