Britons want UK forces out of Iraq
Mon 1 September, 2003 03:45 BST



LONDON (Reuters) - More than 60 percent of Britons believe their government should be withdrawing its troops from Iraq, an opinion poll shows.

A poll for the Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper and television show GMTV asking when British forces should be withdrawn from Iraq, found 29 percent of respondents wanted troops pulled out as soon as possible and 32 percent called for a phased withdrawal, with a final date set for the last soldier to leave.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's embattled government has been put under a harsh spotlight by a judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the apparent suicide of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly and public displeasure at the growing number of British servicemen killed in an unstable postwar Iraq.

Last week gunmen killed a British soldier in southern Iraq, bringing to 11 the number of British soldiers killed since May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared that major combat in the U.S.-led war which ousted Saddam Hussein was over.

There was more bad news for Blair in the poll, which said the greatest number of respondents held him responsible for Kelly's death compared with other people or organisations mentioned in the press.

The prime minister was blamed by 21 percent of respondents, compared with 15 percent who said Kelly was responsible, seven percent who believed the Ministry of Defence primarily responsible and six percent who pointed the finger the BBC.

The poll was conducted after Blair gave evidence to the Hutton inquiry last week. The paper did not say how many people it had polled.


--Reuters