Iraq - Brown accused of manipulating figures and ignoring Parliament

4.08.38pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 3rd Oct 2007

Liberal Democrats at the London rally against war in Iraq

UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 1,000 by the end of the year, Gordon Brown has said on a visit to Iraq. However, it has emerged that the withdrawal of 500 of these troops had been announced in July, and 270 of them are already back home. 4,500 UK troops are expected to remain at the Basra Airport base into next year. The announcement was branded "cynical politics" by the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

Any troop withdrawal from Iraq is welcome, but this is a cynical effort to manipulate the figures and make it look more significant than is really the case. In fact only 500 more troops will be pulled out of southern Iraq, since the withdrawal of the other 500 had already been announced. It still leaves 4,500 British troops trapped in Basra airport where they no longer serve any real military or political purpose. What we need is a clear timetable to withdraw all our forces to safety within six months.

With today's Iraq announcement Gordon Brown has broken his own promise to make significant announcements in Parliament, says BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson. Less than 100 days into Brown's time as Prime Minister this has to be one of the quickest broken promises in political history. It is clear his promise to speak to Parliament before spinning to the media was itself just more spin. So much for the 'new politics'. It's back already to the Brown-Blair spin machine.