MPs consider Blair's tough week

BBC News Online looks at how politicians think the week ahead - predicted by many newspapers to be the toughest yet for Tony Blair - will shape up.

Gordon Brown
Chancellor

Gordon Brown has called for MPs to back Tony Blair

"It is right that Tony Blair and the government do win [the top-up fees vote] and I believe that it is a sensible, radical reform," Mr Brown said.

"We will win this vote because we are winning the argument about reform - we are facing up to a problem in this country that previous governments have not."

Asked if Tony Blair would still be prime minister at the next election, Mr Brown replied: "Should he be? Yes. Will he be? That's a matter for him.

"Tony Blair has been a great prime minister for Britain and I think he has been a great leader of the Labour Party as well."

Charles Kennedy
Liberal Democrat leader

Charles Kennedy will vote against top-up fees

"We certainly don't feel confidence in the government because we fundamentally disagree with the principal tenet of their foreign policy at the moment and we are at odds with them over domestic policies, not least top-up fees," he said.

"There's no question as to what any opposition party would do in those circumstances. We would vote against the government.

"At the end of this week what we will have seen is a further erosion in terms of public credibility and trust both for the government and for the prime minister."

Tim Yeo
Tory education spokesman

Tim Yeo believes Labour will win top-up fees vote

It would be "incredible" if a government with such a large parliamentary majority lost a vote on such a flagship bill, he said.

"It's a terrible setback, it shows that a policy they described as a flagship policy cannot carry the support of their own party and certainly will remain deeply opposed by all the other parties in the House of Commons."

But he added: "I don't believe this is a matter of confidence for them and nor will I be calling for Education Secretary Charles Clarke's resignation."

And he expects the government to win "comfortably" in the Commons thanks to a campaign of "arm-twisting" by its whips.

Charles Clarke
Education Secretary

Charles Clarke has been prepared to make concessions

"We will win the [top-up fees] vote but there's certainly a hill to climb," Mr Clarke said.

"We will put on the front of the bill a commitment that no order to increase fees can be introduced until after two general elections."

And while he conceded there was a "difficult week" ahead, Mr Clarke said it had been right to go to war with Iraq because everybody had believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Peter Lilley
Former Tory cabinet minister

Peter Lilley does not think Hutton will lead to Mr Blair's resignation

The public would be "disappointed" if they expected the Hutton report to answer whether the government had gone to war on a false prospectus, he said.

"However, I think he will expose a lot of how the government behaved and the culture of government which is very disturbing and leave open the question and perhaps that renews the demands for a proper independent inquiry into why we were taken to war on that particular prospectus," he added.

He predicted: "I'm sure Tony Blair will not be ousted by a judge, a judge will go a long way to try and avoid that and I think that he's right to do that.

"Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon at some stage will be sacrificed but probably not immediately and BBC Director General Greg Dyke and the BBC chairman and governors may have to think again about their positions."