Britain’s first female Muslim peer has warned that photographs of Iraqi prisoner abuse will result in a "shift against Labour".

Speaking as former Labour minister Frank Dobson warned that the conflict of Iraq had "echoes" of Vietnam, Baroness Uddin warned that the pictures conjured up memories of the Holocaust.

"I think there’s been some indication over the last year or so that there’s been a shift against my Labour Party and that really really makes me sad," the Labour peer said.

"I want everyone to vote Labour but I know that there is enormous amount of anger and frustration at the fact that people felt for the first time they were unable to move their own government."

And she went on to warn that the images could do grave damage to the prime minister's repuation.

"I hadn’t been moved by something like that since my first encounter in Britain, pictures of the holocaust. That’s what conjured up in my mind and that’s what people are saying," said Uddin.

“I think that’s why we are deeply flawed before the international community. Someone of the prime minister’s stature, especially he was held with great esteem in the Muslim world and by the Muslim community in Britain and I think he’s lost that ground on a huge scale."

Uddin's comments were echoed by Dobson - who is a long-standing critic of the war.

Speaking to GMTV he said British troops were remaining in Iraq because of the "the personal vanity of an American President".

He said: "You’ve got to start asking what are British troops doing in Iraq now? Is the situation ever retrievable and if it isn’t why are we keeping them there?"