British People lose Confidence in Blair

TONY Blair has lost the trust of the British people over war on Iraq, an exclusive Mirror poll reveals today.

Two thirds of voters believe the Premier fed them false information in the months-long run-up to conflict.

Their damning verdict follows the failure to find Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, suspect claims that the tyrant could deploy WMD in 45 minutes and allegations that intelligence dossiers were "sexed up" to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

More than one in three voters - 35 per cent - say their confidence in Mr Blair has lessened because of the war. Even 11 per cent of Labour voters have lost faith, enough to wipe out the party's majority at a general election.

The Mirror poll, carried out by ICM Research, showed that only 29 per cent of voters say Mr Blair did not mislead the country over war on Iraq.

Twenty seven per cent believe he knowingly gave them false information. The rest - 39 per cent - think he did not mean to lie to them, but did.

Voters feel equally distrustful about the security services. More believe they provided bad intelligence about Iraq than good.

Twenty nine per cent thought it bad, 18 per cent very bad, 37 per cent said it was good and only a derisory six per cent that it was very good.

Despite the huge level of criticism about Mr Blair's role in ordering British troops into Iraq, almost half of voters say he was justified in going to war.

And fewer than one in four, 24 per cent, believe Saddam did not have WMD before the conflict started. Thirty per cent say he destroyed them when war began. Thirty six per cent back Mr Blair's insistence that WMD still exist in Iraq, despite no sign of them since Saddam was kicked out of power three months ago.

Mr Blair's biggest critics over war on Iraq are those aged over 65. Young people aged 18-24 are most supportive with 54 per cent agreeing the attack was justified.