BRITAIN: The UK was back on war-footing last night as Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon confirmed the Ark Royal will lead a Royal Navy task force into the Gulf next month.
Mr Hoon and other British ministers insisted this did not mean war with Iraq was now inevitable. In a statement to MPs confirming "contingency preparations" in hand, Mr Hoon maintained the British Government's "primary objective" remained a peaceful resolution, with the gathering threat of a "credible" military force the means of ensuring Iraqi compliance with the UN Security Council resolution 1441.
However anti-war MPs were unconvinced, as were the Conservatives even as they sought to exploit apparent differences in separate statements yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and his Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw.
Labour MP Mr Jeremy Corbyn accused Mr Hoon of "softening us up for war" while Plaid Cymru MP Mr Elfyn Llwyd said the United Kingdom was "on a treadmill to war".
These exchanges played against the backdrop of Conservative demands for "absolute clarity and certainty" following the "confusion" allegedly caused by Mr Blair and Mr Straw in their interim verdicts on Iraq's declaration on its weapons programmes.
Mr Blair suggested most people were "pretty sceptical" while saying the British government would not make a formal judgment until the new year.
However Mr Straw appeared to go beyond this, saying Saddam Hussein's claim to have abandoned production of weapons of mass destruction contained an "obvious falsehood", and warning: "This will fool nobody. If Saddam persists in this . . . It will become clear that he has rejected the pathway to peace laid down in Resolution 1441."
Conservative spokesman Mr Michael Ancram told the BBC this suggested Mr Straw was already holding Saddam Hussein to be in "material breach" of the UN resolution. However Mr Hoon said Mr Straw and Mr Blair were both reflecting "only a preliminary view".
With the prospect of war dominating the last Prime Minister's Questions before Christmas, Conservative leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith pressed Mr Blair to say he would recall parliament if a decision to deploy British troops had to be taken during the recess. He also asked Mr Blair to clarify whether MPs would have the opportunity to vote on a substantive motion approving such deployment.
Mr Blair told him: "In respect of any substantive vote, we've made it clear that it would be our intention to do so, although subject to the proviso that the Foreign Secretary set out that there must be nothing done that would in any way endanger or imperil our troops should we require them to act quickly."