TONY Blair did not dupe the public by exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, Swindon's Labour MPs have insisted.

The town's MPs poured scorn on allegations that the prime minister distorted intelligence information in the dossier published in the run-up to war.

And they said there was no need for a public inquiry into the murky intelligence briefings that helped accelerate the invasion of Iraq.

Julia Drown, MP for South Swindon, and Michael Wills, MP for North Swindon, spoke out after an intelligence official told the BBC that the September dossier had been "sexed up".

Most importantly, the dossier alleged that Saddam had developed chemical and biological weapons which could be launched in just 45 minutes.

But the claim is understood to have been made by a single Iraqi official.

And nearly two months after the war ended no weapons of mass destruction have been found.

Ms Drown said: "The suggestion that the threat was invented seems very strange indeed to me.

"Back in November, all the world's leaders were saying that Iraq was a threat.

"Having spoken to both the prime minister and Jack Straw about this, I have no doubt that they acted on the intelligence they had. They believed the threat was there.

"It is still early days after the end of the war and what we should all be concentrating on now is making Iraq a better place."

Mr Wills, a junior home office minister, described the row as a "Westminster storm in a teacup" and insisted the West "bent over backwards" to try to defuse the crisis without a war.

He said: "There is no evidence that anyone was misled. This story has got completely out of hand.

"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction because he used them.

"The UN inspectors identifed large amounts of those weapons which he refused to account for."

Mr Blair announced this week that an inquiry would be carried out by the shadowy Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

But the ISC takes its evidence behind closed doors, reports directly to the prime minister and its reports are censored before they are published.

In contrast, a beefed-up inquiry, similar to the Franks inquiry that followed the 1982 Falklands War, could summon Mr Blair to give evidence.