Blair vows he will stay loyal to Bush and won't stand down

BILL JACOBS
WESTMINSTER EDITOR


TONY BLAIR today dismissed calls to distance himself from United States President George Bush in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.

And the Prime Minister also made clear he had no intention of standing down and making way for Chancellor Gordon Brown.

He spoke out as two of the Britons held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba sent an open letter to President Bush claiming systematic abuse. Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, from Tipton in the west Midlands, were held at the base for more than two years after being apprehended in Afghanistan, but faced no chargesafter their release.

However, the pressure on Mr Blair was eased by Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram’s announcement that Daily Mirror photographs of British troops abusing Iraqis were fake, shifting the heat on to the paper’s editor, Piers Morgan. Mr Blair has been facing increasing demands from senior members of the Government and Labour backbenchers to "put some light" between Britain and the US in the wake of the current problems.

But Mr Blair dismissed "this idea that at the time of maximum difficulty you start messing around your main ally".

He went on: "I am afraid that is not what we are going to do."

He dismissed the idea he might be about to stand down to make way for Mr Brown, branding it "froth".

• The US has started releasing prisoners from the Abu Grabh jail in Baghdad where the photographs of Americans torturing prisoners were taken.