Blair comes under fire over ’snub to veterans’

VETERANS who campaigned for a memorial to British troops who died while liberating Rome are dismayed that Tony Blair has refused to extend his Italian visit to attend its unveiling on Sunday.

The Prime Minister, who has been on holiday in Tuscany with his family since Saturday, holds talks in Rome today with Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister, and has an audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican tomorrow before he returns home.

Allied forces pushed up the Italian peninsula after the landings at Anzio to liberate Rome from Nazi occupation in June 1944. After a four-year campaign by veterans to have the Allied sacrifices honoured, a marble memorial has been commissioned in the heart of Rome. It depicts an Italian woman embracing an Allied soldier in gratitude.

Harry Shindler, 84, who fought at Anzio and in Rome, said that Downing Street had written to him to say that Mr Blair sent his best wishes but was unable to attend the ceremony because of other commitments. The British delegation will be led by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of the Defence Staff.

Mr Shindler, of the Star Association, which represents veterans who fought in the Italian campaigns, was “surprised to learn subsequently that the Prime Minister was going to be in Rome the day before . . . I am very disappointed he is not staying on”. He said that a possible compromise would be for Mr Blair to “pause by the memorial” tomorrow.

The memorial will be unveiled on Piazza Venezia, which is dominated by the white marble Victor Emmanuel monument, the home of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the focus of Italian patriotism. “This is the first time the square has been altered for 100 years,” Mr Shindler said. “The Italians are making a huge concession to honour our lads.”

Mr Blair also has ground to make up with Signor Prodi. They fell out when the Italian was European Commission President. Signor Prodi has since called the Iraq war a grave error and plans to accelerate the withdrawal of Italian troops. Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister, sent 3,000 troops to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, a number since reduced to 2,600.

Mr Blair was a close ally of Signor Berlusconi, with whom he dined on Monday at the estate of Prince Girolamo Guicciardini Strozzi near San Gimignano, where the Blairs have been staying. Signor Prodi’s staff have not forgotten that Mr Blair and President Bush failed to congratulate Signor Prodi when he won the election in April, instead accepting Signor Berlusconi’s claim that the result was in doubt.

But at his last press conference, the Prime Minister said: “I advocated the appointment of Romano Prodi to the European Commission presidency. And I’ve known Romano for very many years, so I’m sure I’ll have a very good working relationship with him.”

Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.