MPs attack Reid for 'socialist' Iraq policy

John Reid, the Labour Party chairman, angered backbenchers yesterday by saying the Government's Iraq policy was justified by "democratic socialism".

Labour MPs accused him of "complete delusion" and "peddling a fallacy" after he said in an interview with the New Statesman that Tony Blair's stance was consistent with Labour's ethical foreign policy. "It's long been a tenet of social democracy, of democratic socialism, to view with contempt fascism in all its forms," Mr Reid said.

But Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, said it was "complete delusion to suggest that this is some great campaign for a just cause.

"It's a travesty to describe things in these terms. We are acting as a junior partner with the American far right," said Mr Flynn. "We are acting as the silent partner in this axis of delusion, with the far-right, fundamentalist wing of the Republican Party who have decided they want to reorder the world in the interests of America. It's not about Saddam Hussein, it's about reordering the Middle East."

The Labour chairman said that the Bush administration did not have the same philosophical reasoning as the UK Government but rejected claims that President George Bush was motivated by oil.

Alan Simpson, MP for Nottingham South, who has led Labour backbench opposition to a strike on Iraq, said Mr Reid was mistaken to use socialism to justify war. "You can't justify gung ho militarism on the basis of the existence of repressive regimes. During the last 50 years, the central role of the UN has been to seek non-military ways of addressing conflict and injustice," he said.