Kennedy fury at Straw`s Saddam jibe

9.59.01pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th Oct 2004

Liberal democrat leader Charles Kennedy has demanded an apology form Jack straw, claiming the Foreign Secretary"scandalously" misrepresented his party`s policy on Iraq.

A furious Mr Kennedy contacted BBC Radio 4`s Today programme and asked to be put on air after hearing Mr straw say that if the Lib Dems` anti-war policy had been followed ,Saddam Hussein would have been strengthened.

The Lib Dem leader accused Mr Straw of insulting millions of voters who also opposed the war.

in an interview on Today,Mr Straw said"We have a responsibility for sorting the situation(in Iraq) out. Those who opposed the military action, however,also have their responsibility.As of March 2003,the possibility of securing weakened weakened saddam by effective inspections and an ultimatum wasn`t on offer.

"So the choice was between our course or a strengthened Saddam Hussein,who for sure once the sanctions had degraded-as they were doing-and the troops had left, would have emerged more powerful,carrying out torture and torture and his tyranny with in Iraq and threatening the region as a whole.

"That i`m afraid is the position of the Liberal Democrats which dare not speak its name in terms of their policy."

Lib Dem aides accused the Government of trying to use "spin" to paper over its misjudgements in Iraq.

Responding to Mr Straw`s comments,Mr Kennedy told Today:"That was a scandalous interview.I think those remarks were gratuitous. I want an apology from the Foreign Secretary for what he has said about us and what he has said about the millions of people in this country who have agreed with us.

"To try to suggest or imply, as he did, that somehow those of us who were against the war were, in fact, covertly in favour of some form of strengthened Saddam Hussein is absolute absolute insult to the integrity as well as the intelligence of people.

"He spoke about the fact that...the arguments that (we) were deploying and continue to deploy against this act of foreign policy folly.. would have ended up with a strengthened Saddam. That is certainly not what any of us,including (UN weapons inspector)Dr Hans Blix,were arguing for.