Short fuse fizzing beneath shaky Blair
By Peter Fray, Herald Correspondent in London
March 11 2003
Tony Blair's cabinet has been rocked by threats from Clare Short, one of its most high-profile and popular members, to resign if Britain goes to war against Iraq without a second United Nations resolution.
Ms Short, the International Development Secretary and a leading left-winger, described war without UN sanction as a breach of international law and said she could not stay in cabinet and "defend the indefensible".
Up to 10 Labour parliamentary secretaries, the lowest ministerial level, have also threatened to follow Andy Reed, the private secretary to the Environment Minister, Margaret Beckett, who resigned at the weekend.
Ms Short accused Mr Blair of being "reckless' with global security, the UN, his own career and the future of the Labour Government.
"The whole atmosphere of the current situation is deeply reckless: reckless for the world, reckless for the undermining of the UN in this disorderly world, reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position and place in history," she told BBC radio.
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