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Power Struggle at U.N. Resonating Deeply at 10 Downing Street
Aired March 11, 2003 - 10:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The air is not quite as clear in London either. The power struggle there at the U.N. in New York is resonating deeply at 10 Downing Street, which is home to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but the loudest critics are his own people.
Polls are now showing Brits are overwhelmingly against military action, and they are angered by Blair's unwavering support of the U.S.-led war.
CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is with us now live from London.
Hello, Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Leon, which is exactly why for Blair, perhaps more than any other world leader right now, a second resolution is an absolute must. As you mentioned, the poll, the latest poll shows that only 19 percent of the British public would support Blair if he went to war alongside the Americans without the that second resolution. Blair has been trying to convince the British people. Last night, he yet again took to television. He was on a program which essentially he also had quite a hostile audience there, and this has been going on for quite a while, as he tried to convince a lot of doubters, a lot of skeptics amongst his own people. He is looking extremely tired, and even his supporters now are beginning to say that the longer this goes on without a resolution, the longer it goes on, it will have more and more of a damaging impact on Prime Minister Blair, and that was reflected on some of the questioning on that television program here last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of your colleague at Westminster talking not about regime change in Baghdad, but regime change at Westminster.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are all questions that people can speculate on. What I'm trying to do is do what I believe what is right for the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prime minister, thank you.
BLAIR: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: This is very disheartening stuff, as you can imagine, for Tony Blair, who feels very, very deeply that what he's doing is the right thing. And, of course, as you know, has been elected in the last several years twice with huge, huge overwhelming landslides, almost unprecedented in this century. And all of a sudden to find himself in this really life-or-death political situation, so the frantic search on certainly the British side, not just for those swing votes at the U.N., but also for some kind of more compromise in this draft resolution that is being tabled in New York, perhaps more time, perhaps benchmarks, all of these things being added potentially to convince more people to come on board.
But of course, Downing Street and Tony Blair, even more disheartened by the fact that the French have now said they will vote no to any kind of resolution that automatically authorized war or puts in any kind of short-term ultimatum -- Leon.
HARRIS: Very interesting. And that scene from the television show, just perhaps maybe one of the most uncomfortable scenes I think I've seen Tony Blair in. How realistic is that that Mr. Blair could be removed from office, and how does that actually happen?
AMANPOUR: Well, look, it's very, very difficult to tell. Up until about a few days ago, most people were saying, even the people against him were saying, that he is a very strongly elected leader, he has an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and that he has a huge and solid leadership right now. And of course, they were saying if the war goes well, then he will recover from this kind of political damage that has been going on.
But the longer it goes on, the longer it goes on without any kind of second resolution, the longer the people of Britain are able to sort of register their disapproval of all this, the more and more damaging.
We had a senior cabinet minister who came out against Blair over the weekend. She still has her job after calling his policy extraordinarily reckless. I mean, it was incredible breach of what they call here, diplomatic protocol, political protocol here, but what's happened is, as the last time there was a vote in the House of Commons on this issue, 122 members of his own party voted against, and what they're saying is, if there is another vote, which he promised to House of Commons before a potential war, then there could be more of his own party that votes against him. That combined with union leaders and others in the sort of general public could force a vote of no confidence or a vote of censure against Blair. So his own party votes against him, that's pretty much the end, potentially, for his leadership, if not the Labor government.
HEMMER: Which perfectly underscores why a resolution from the U.N. is an absolute must.
Thank you, Christiane. Christiane Amanpour, live with us in London.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired March 11, 2003 - 10:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The air is not quite as clear in London either. The power struggle there at the U.N. in New York is resonating deeply at 10 Downing Street, which is home to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but the loudest critics are his own people.
Polls are now showing Brits are overwhelmingly against military action, and they are angered by Blair's unwavering support of the U.S.-led war.
CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is with us now live from London.
Hello, Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Leon, which is exactly why for Blair, perhaps more than any other world leader right now, a second resolution is an absolute must. As you mentioned, the poll, the latest poll shows that only 19 percent of the British public would support Blair if he went to war alongside the Americans without the that second resolution. Blair has been trying to convince the British people. Last night, he yet again took to television. He was on a program which essentially he also had quite a hostile audience there, and this has been going on for quite a while, as he tried to convince a lot of doubters, a lot of skeptics amongst his own people. He is looking extremely tired, and even his supporters now are beginning to say that the longer this goes on without a resolution, the longer it goes on, it will have more and more of a damaging impact on Prime Minister Blair, and that was reflected on some of the questioning on that television program here last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of your colleague at Westminster talking not about regime change in Baghdad, but regime change at Westminster.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are all questions that people can speculate on. What I'm trying to do is do what I believe what is right for the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prime minister, thank you.
BLAIR: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: This is very disheartening stuff, as you can imagine, for Tony Blair, who feels very, very deeply that what he's doing is the right thing. And, of course, as you know, has been elected in the last several years twice with huge, huge overwhelming landslides, almost unprecedented in this century. And all of a sudden to find himself in this really life-or-death political situation, so the frantic search on certainly the British side, not just for those swing votes at the U.N., but also for some kind of more compromise in this draft resolution that is being tabled in New York, perhaps more time, perhaps benchmarks, all of these things being added potentially to convince more people to come on board.
But of course, Downing Street and Tony Blair, even more disheartened by the fact that the French have now said they will vote no to any kind of resolution that automatically authorized war or puts in any kind of short-term ultimatum -- Leon.
HARRIS: Very interesting. And that scene from the television show, just perhaps maybe one of the most uncomfortable scenes I think I've seen Tony Blair in. How realistic is that that Mr. Blair could be removed from office, and how does that actually happen?
AMANPOUR: Well, look, it's very, very difficult to tell. Up until about a few days ago, most people were saying, even the people against him were saying, that he is a very strongly elected leader, he has an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and that he has a huge and solid leadership right now. And of course, they were saying if the war goes well, then he will recover from this kind of political damage that has been going on.
But the longer it goes on, the longer it goes on without any kind of second resolution, the longer the people of Britain are able to sort of register their disapproval of all this, the more and more damaging.
We had a senior cabinet minister who came out against Blair over the weekend. She still has her job after calling his policy extraordinarily reckless. I mean, it was incredible breach of what they call here, diplomatic protocol, political protocol here, but what's happened is, as the last time there was a vote in the House of Commons on this issue, 122 members of his own party voted against, and what they're saying is, if there is another vote, which he promised to House of Commons before a potential war, then there could be more of his own party that votes against him. That combined with union leaders and others in the sort of general public could force a vote of no confidence or a vote of censure against Blair. So his own party votes against him, that's pretty much the end, potentially, for his leadership, if not the Labor government.
HEMMER: Which perfectly underscores why a resolution from the U.N. is an absolute must.
Thank you, Christiane. Christiane Amanpour, live with us in London.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Street>
