MP GORDON Prentice has described Tony Blair's admission over weapons of mass destruction as "astonishing."

The Prime Minister said he did not know during the key debate on going to war with Iraq last year whether the weapons in the Government's dossier were strategic or battlefield.

But the Pendle Labour MP said Lord Butler's investigation into the intelligence on which the dossier was based should clarify what the Premier did or didn't know.

In a Commons debate on the Hutton report yesterday, Mr Blair said he was personally not aware that the alleged biological and chemical weapons that Saddam Hussein could release within 45 minutes were short range tactical battlefield arms and not long-distance strategic missiles. Mr Prentice told the debate: "I voted against the war in Iraq because I did not believe, as the Prime Minister invited us all to believe, that there was a serious and current threat.

"Going to war is the most serious decision that a government can take and it must be taken in full knowledge of all the facts.

"It is as plain as a pikestaff that we did not have all the relevant facts before us when we voted on March 18.

"The key thing for those Labour MPs who reluctantly voted with the Government was the supposed existence of weapons of mass destruction that could be fired within 45 minutes."

Mr Prentice also said he was amazed that former Downing Street Direction of Communications, Alastair Campbell, did not go through the normal complaints procedure after BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan alleged he had personally "sexed up" the dossier and inserted the 45-minute claim knowing it to be untrue. Instead, Burnley fan Mr Campbell launched a public attack on the BBC, which Lord Hutton supported.

Mr Prentice said: "If we take on the BBC we will be the losers because people believe the BBC much more than they would ever believe the Government or Parliament."