Labour's Blackpool conference was wowed by Bill Clinton's star quality on Wednesday.

Many believe the former US president helped ease deep concerns within the party over the prospect of war on Iraq.

Ivor Caplin, the MP for Hove, told this website that Clinton "amplified the importance of the Iraqi issue to our two countries and to the wider world."

The government whip says that the world statesman's intervention has helped reassure the party and make the Iraq issue clearer to Labour doubters.

"I think certainly he would have been reassuring but also he was making the clear point that we have to deal with Iraq, the way we have to deal with it is through the United Nations - which incidentally is what Britain has been saying through Tony Blair since the summer," he said.

"We've managed to persuade the current American administration that's the best way to go, they accept that, and that's what we are continuing to work for.

"So I think he will of reassured people on that basis, that it is the best way forward for the international community."

Caplin was personally moved by Clinton's tribute to Northern Ireland's peace process - and his continuing influence there.

"I was particularly moved by his piece on Northern Ireland. I think he really gave and continues to give that level of leadership to the Irish communities to go for the bigger prize of peace," he said.

Fellow MP Martin Salter hailed a "world class performance from a world class politician."

His wife had phoned him on his mobile and told the Reading MP "this is how it should be, this is the American president we should be dealing with".

Clinton, claims Salter, is a Labour conference natural. "I think he struck a chord with delegates, with members of parliament, with everyone here at Blackpool," he said.

"It was almost he had lived and breathed in the Labour Party all his life. Quite incredible and a major boost both for Tony Blair and the government's approach to dealing with some of the more hawkish elements within the Bush administration."

After what has been a sometimes bruising and fractious Labour gathering, the MP paid tribute to the Clinton effect.

"Bill Clinton every bit as much as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is sending delegates away from Blackpool this week with a spring in their step and feeling that this our time, the responsibility of government lies on the shoulder of the Labour in this country for the foreseeable future."

Salter believes the 42nd US president underlined an important political lesson to Labour's anti-American elements.

"He's made the very necessary distinction between the unacceptable face of American politics, as typified by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Cheney, and a huge section of American society that is inclusive, that is outward looking, that wants social justice, and that does share any of the values and principles of the British labour movement," he said.

A more critical note came from veteran socialist and pensions campaigner Jack Jones.

The former trade union chief, who received Labour award from Glenys Kinnock earlier in the day, said the speech was "very good in parts".

"But I wish he was more critical of Bush and critical of the dangers of America forcing a war over the Iraq question instead building up backing for the United Nations," he told ePolitix.

"America seems to want to go it alone and Clinton should be fighting that as strongly as, I think we should be fighting it in Britain."

"Both Clinton and the British Labour government should be pressing for United Nations action not unilateral action by America - even if its supported by Britain."