British Prime Minister Tony Blair today admitted that intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programme was wrong. However, in an interview with the BBC, he said that ‘‘to withdraw troops from Iraq would be to surrender to terrorists’’. ‘‘Some of the intelligence used to justify the war had been unreliable, but it was still right to topple Saddam Hussein,’’ Blair said. The intelligence inputs on Hussein possessing actual deployable weapons turned out to be wrong, he added.Denying any lapses in planning for the post-war situation in Iraq, Blair said the degree to which terrorists from outside the country had moved in had surprised everybody.Blair also tried to dismiss suggestions that he had focussed more on foreign affairs, than on the domestic front. ‘‘The irony of the government is, whereas the perception is that it has spent a lot of its second term on foreign affairs, we’ve been far more radical in domestic policies,’’ Blair said in an interview with The Observer on Sunday, ahead of the ruling Labour Party’s annual conference in Brighton. ‘‘I think the irony of my position is that I’m sort of less popular and more capable,’’ he said. A private poll by the Labour Party reportedly suggested three million traditional Labour supporters may not vote because they feel Blair has concentrated on Iraq at their expense. A poll for News of the World puts Labour at 28 per cent, one point behind the Liberal Democrats, at 29 per cent and three points behind the Conservatives, at 32 per cent.
