Editing Clare Short (section)

====Resignation====
On 9 March 2003, Short repeatedly called [[Tony Blair]] "reckless" in a BBC radio interview<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_westminster_hour/2845125.stm Clare Short's "reckless" interview] from the [[BBC]].</ref> and threatened to resign from the Cabinet in the event of the UK Government going to war with [[Iraq]] without a clear mandate from the United Nations. This looked set to be a reprise of her previous resignation as party spokesperson during the [[Gulf War]] of 1991 as a protest against the Labour Party's stance, although in 1999 she had publicly supported the [[NATO]] attack on Serbia. However, on 18 March she announced that she would remain in the Cabinet and support the government's resolution in the House of Commons.

Short remained in the Cabinet for two months following her decision to back the [[2003 Iraq War]]. She resigned on 12 May. In her resignation statement in the House of Commons the following day she stated: "In both the run-up to the war and now, I think the UK is making grave errors in providing cover for the US mistakes rather than helping an old friend... American power alone cannot make America safe...  But undermining international law and the authority of the UN creates the risk of instability, bitterness and growing terrorism that will threaten the future for all of us."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/resignation-statement-errors-secrecy-and-control-freakery-clare-short-s-parting-shot-to-blair-538454.html|title=Resignation statement: Errors, secrecy and control freakery - Clare Short's parting shot to Blair|date=13 May 2003|work=The Independent |location=UK|access-date=16 October 2022}}</ref>

Her later, Conservative, successor in the post, [[Andrew Mitchell]], described her as "a brilliant development secretary".<ref name="Bloomfield">{{cite web |last1=Bloomfield |first1=Steve |title=The war on aid: the hidden battle inside Priti Patel's own department |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-war-on-aid-the-hidden-battle-inside-priti-patels-own-department |access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref>