A CLIQUE around Tony Blair drove Britain into war in Iraq after hiding the truth from Parliament and the people, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy will claim today.

In his most outspoken attack yet on the events leading up to war, Mr Kennedy will tell his party's conference in Brighton that MPs were not allowed to know the reality of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

He will also demand fundamental change in the way Parliament is treated so that the Government is never again able to "shroud itself in secrecy" over such a critical issue.

Labelling Mr Blair's government as "shop-soiled" after more than six years in power, Mr Kennedy is expected to accuse the Prime Minister of seeking to "manipulate, not tell it as it is".

In his close-of-conference speech, he is expected to say: "If the British House of Commons had known then what it knows now about the events leading up to that fateful Parliamentary debate and vote on committing our forces to war in Iraq, then that outcome could and should have been fundamentally different. But of course Parliament did not know these things, because the Government - over such a critical issue - can still shroud itself in secrecy.

"And Tony Blair's presidential system of government can exclude the proper workings of what should be collective Cabinet government, held to account by the elected House of Commons.

"This is supposed to be a parliamentary democracy. But what we have seen is a small clique driving us into war, disregarding widespread public doubts. That is not acceptable."

Mr Kennedy, buoyed by an opinion poll which put support for his party at 28 per cent in the wake of last week's by-election triumph in Brent East, is also expected to attack Tory hypocrisy over the Iraq issue.

He is expected to say: "Do you share with me a certain distaste at the sight of the Conservative leadership criticising the outcome of a war for which they were the principal cheerleaders? That's a leadership of charlatans and chancers."