Opposition Hopeful Blasts Blair

Former treasury chief Kenneth Clarke fired a blistering opening salvo Thursday in his campaign to become the leader of the opposition to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, excoriating the government for its decision to participate in the Iraq war and for conducting a faulty campaign against terrorism.

As a former chancellor of the exchequer, home secretary, health secretary and education secretary, the veteran Conservative politician has been instantly dubbed the “big beast” in the leadership contest by tabloids here. Clarke is the most experienced of the four main hopefuls vying to head the Conservative Party after Michael Howard steps down this year, although he is still not considered the front-runner.

Clarke, having declared his candidacy Wednesday, told the Foreign Press Assn. that Blair’s government has been too subservient to Washington and was misguided in its decision to go to war.

He made it clear that if he wins the leadership post, the Conservative Party, which gave Blair a green light to join with the United States in the invasion of Iraq, would become a much more reluctant and critical partner to Washington.

“Iraq was a diversion from the core task of the pursuit and destruction of Al Qaeda,” he said. “Indeed, the failure to prepare properly for the aftermath of invasion has led to a horrifying expansion of terrorist activity in Iraq. We must not make such a mistake again.”

Clarke also insisted that British participation had heightened the country’s risk of being attacked by terrorists, and he mocked Blair for failing to acknowledge that. “If the prime minister really believes it, he must be the only person left who thinks that the recent bombs in London had no connection at all with his policy in Iraq,” he said.

However, Clarke stopped short of endorsing an immediate pullout of British troops from Iraq, saying, “It would be immoral to walk away from the consequences of our actions, leaving anarchy and civil war.”

He argued that Blair was erring in his response to the London bombing attacks, charging that tougher anti-terrorism laws and police actions would only further alienate “Muslim opinion.”

“You do not beat the enemies of freedom by taking freedom away,” he said.

Clarke, 65, amiable and garrulous with a taste for cigars, jazz and cricket, is blessed with a reputation as a typical English “bloke.” But supporters say he also has the experience and name recognition to be seen as a possible prime minister on a level with Blair or Blair’s heir apparent, Gordon Brown, the current treasury chief.

They also argue that some of his positions, including his opposition to the Iraq war and his well-known support for a strong British role in Europe, make him palatable to swing voters who previously have drifted to the Liberal Democrats.

Others in his party see Clarke as too old, tread-worn and centrist, and want a somewhat younger, more ideological Conservative in charge. This group has coalesced around David Davis, the 56-year-old shadow home secretary. Questions also have been raised about whether Clarke’s work on behalf of the British tobacco industry would be a liability to an increasingly health-conscious nation.

Also in the race are former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, 59, and David Cameron, the neophyte shadow education secretary who is just 38 and was elevated by Howard in hopes of drawing a new generation to bolster the aging Conservative faithful.

The Conservative Party, which in May lost its third consecutive election to Blair and his “new” Labor party, has been struggling to find a leader that can return it to its traditional role as Britain’s governing party.

The Conservatives, who governed Britain through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, claim that the British like its values but that they were hijacked by Blair when he reinvented Labor as a modernizing, free-enterprise-friendly party in the 1990s.

Since the Conservatives under John Major were defeated in a rout in 1997, the party has gone through three leaders in quick succession. Whoever is chosen this year will be charged with preparing the Conservatives to challenge Labor in elections unlikely to be held before 2009 or 2010.

Clarke said he was betting that by then, the country would be ready for a change in direction.