Senior Cabinet ministers were ready to resign along with the Prime Minister, had the Commons vote on Iraq gone against the Government, it has been revealed.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said he would have followed Tony Blair in quitting the Government, had many more Labour MPs joined the revolt against the war in the March 18 vote.
Home secretary David Blunkett also said: "Everyone believed, in the run-up to that vote, that Tony had put his premiership on the line and those who are very close to him would go down with him."
"I thought it would be a hit on the Government as a whole."
Mr Blair recently revealed that he told his family he might be forced to resign over Iraq.
Given Conservative support, the Government was never likely to lose the vote but gaining the support of a majority of Labour MPs was seen by many as a crucial yardstick of Mr Blair's credibility.
Mr Straw said: "I was simply conscious of the fact that if it went wrong - if we did not get the support we needed in the Commons - he (Blair) would almost certainly go and I would go with him."
He said he gave the issue "quite a bit of thought" in the run-up to the vote.
In the end the Government won the vote, with 139 Labour backbenchers voting against Mr Blair's stance on Iraq.
Speaking of those who opposed the war, both in Britain and abroad, Mr Straw said: "I don't want to lecture them about that but it is for people themselves to examine what they said and decide whether they made the right judgment."
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon also revealed that he warned his American counterpart Donald Rumsfeld that the US might not be able to rely on British support if the vote had gone against Mr Blair.
He said he wanted the US to understand that the parliamentary vote was about "gambling just about everything in getting this right".
"If we had lost that vote, that would have been it," he added.
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Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said he would have followed Tony Blair in quitting the Government, had many more Labour MPs joined the revolt against the war in the March 18 vote.
Home secretary David Blunkett also said: "Everyone believed, in the run-up to that vote, that Tony had put his premiership on the line and those who are very close to him would go down with him."
"I thought it would be a hit on the Government as a whole."
Mr Blair recently revealed that he told his family he might be forced to resign over Iraq.
Given Conservative support, the Government was never likely to lose the vote but gaining the support of a majority of Labour MPs was seen by many as a crucial yardstick of Mr Blair's credibility.
Mr Straw said: "I was simply conscious of the fact that if it went wrong - if we did not get the support we needed in the Commons - he (Blair) would almost certainly go and I would go with him."
He said he gave the issue "quite a bit of thought" in the run-up to the vote.
In the end the Government won the vote, with 139 Labour backbenchers voting against Mr Blair's stance on Iraq.
Speaking of those who opposed the war, both in Britain and abroad, Mr Straw said: "I don't want to lecture them about that but it is for people themselves to examine what they said and decide whether they made the right judgment."
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon also revealed that he warned his American counterpart Donald Rumsfeld that the US might not be able to rely on British support if the vote had gone against Mr Blair.
He said he wanted the US to understand that the parliamentary vote was about "gambling just about everything in getting this right".
"If we had lost that vote, that would have been it," he added.
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