TV comedian Rory Bremner last night threw his weight behind an anti-war campaigner to oust Tony Blair from his Sedgefield seat.

Mr Bremner, who has made his name impersonating the Prime Minister, became the latest celebrity to support Reg Keys, the independent candidate whose son Tom died during the Gulf War.

Mr Bremner said: "The country seems to want a Labour government but there is an anger against Tony Blair. The people of Sedgefield hold the key to this whole election for the country to get the government it wants but not the Prime Minister it doesn't."

Mr Bremner said Mr Blair had abused his power as Prime Minister because he had not shown the advice about the legality of the war from the Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith to the Cabinet.

Lord Goldsmith's advice from March 2003, which said Mr Blair had a "reasonable case" for war, was officially released yesterday having been substantially leaked to the media.

Last night, on BBC1's Question Time programme, Mr Blair was also asked about Mr Bremner's point. But Mr Blair said Lord Goldsmith had attended a Cabinet meeting in person.

"He was able to take them through his reasoning and explain it orally," said Mr Blair.

The Prime Minister stressed that he had tried to secure a second UN resolution in the run up to the invasion, adding: ''In the end therefore I had to decide.

''But I'm afraid this was an occasion I had no fence to sit on. I had to take the decision and I took it.

"I took it because I believed it was in the interests of this country. If we had backed away and left Saddam Hussein in power, immeasurably stronger because we had backed away, I think that would have been bad for the security of our region and our world and therefore of this country.''

Conservative leader Michael Howard said on the programme that the war was justified by the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

Mr Howard said: ''It would be politically much more convenient for me to say that it was a terrible mistake and I would not have done it.

''I would have supported the war because I think it was the right thing to do."

The programme was the only hustings of the election which involved the three party leaders.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy criticised Mr Blair for dismissing the leak of the Attorney General's advice as a ''damp squib''.

''I say to Tony Blair 'Go and describe these findings as a damp squib to the families of the British service personnel who gave their lives in Iraq and to innocent Iraqi civilians who were killed','' he said.

Mr Kennedy also renewed his call for British troops to be bought home from Iraq at the end of the year.

''I personally now don't believe nearly two years or more after the event that the continuing presence of occupying troops offers the Iraqis a better long-term solution. I think we should come home.''