Prime Minister is warned of electoral danger as activists reject case for war

Labour Party members overwhelmingly oppose war on Iraq and reject Tony Blair's attempt to link the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to the 11 September attacks, according to a party report.

The document, to be considered next week by a Labour policy commission co-chaired by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, warns that Mr Blair's focus on Iraq could lose the party the next general election because voters believe he is ignoring bread-and-butter issues.

The report, obtained by The Independent, was compiled by Ann Black, who represents constituency parties on Labour's national executive committee (NEC), after a consultation exercise among party members. It reveals the depth of hostility inside Labour to the Prime Minister's policy and suggests he faces a major rebellion over Iraq at the party's conference later this month.

Mr Blair faces further dissent at meeting of the NEC on 24 September. Mark Seddon, a left-wing member of the executive, has tabled an emergency motion opposing military action unless it is authorised by the United Nations. It says: "No individual country or countries has the right to effect 'regime change' in other sovereign states."

The report says there is "deep alarm" at the prospect of unilateral action against Iraq. "People do not believe that George Bush and Tony Blair are right, and everyone else in the world is wrong."

It says: "Both activists and the 'silent majority' are dismayed at the apparent intention to remove Saddam Hussein, regardless of his actions and regardless of the judgement of our European and international allies, religious leaders of many faiths, British voters and party members. These are not just the 'usual suspects' – some supported intervention in Kosovo and understood, with reservations, [the justification for] military action in Afghanistan.

"Further election victories are being put at risk through the resignations of members who provide the money, and activists who do the work. But a far more serious threat is that voters see Labour taking its eye off the ball, losing interest in schools, hospitals, pensions, transport, crime and all the issues which matter most directly to them."

Rejecting Mr Blair's attempt to link the terrorist attacks in America to Iraq, the report declares: "Iraq has no demonstrable connections with the attacks of September 11 despite every effort to find them."

It warns that "destroying every chemical, biological and nuclear stockpile in the world" would not reduce the threat of a terrorist attack. "However, invading Iraq would increase resentment in the Arab world, promote recruitment to terrorist organisations, and make subsequent suicide attacks more likely, not less likely.

"Invading Iraq is also more likely to result in Saddam Hussein using every weapon he has in self-defence, as we would if Britain were attacked."

As the Government confirmed that Parliament would be recalled from its summer break for a one-day debate on Iraq on 24 September, there was criticism from rebel Labour MPs that they would be denied a vote on the issue.

Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, raised the prospect of a vote at a later stage, saying it would be "inconceivable" that any government could commit British forces without the consent of Parliament. However, Mr Blair is unlikely to allow a formal vote until after British forces have been committed, as happened in 1991 shortly after the start of the Gulf War.

Mr Blair confirmed the recall in meetings with Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, and Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, who called for a full-scale Commons vote on 24 September to send "a powerful message to Iraq".