MPs Plan to Impeach Blair over Iraq War Record
By David Hencke
The Guardian U.K.
Thursday 26 August 2004
MPs are planning to impeach Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" in taking Britain to
war against Iraq, reviving an ancient practice last used against Lord Palmerston more than 150 years
ago.
Eleven MPs led by Adam Price, Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, are to table a
motion when parliament returns that will force the prime minister to appear before the Commons to
defend his record in the run-up to the war.
Nine of the MPs are Welsh and Scottish Nationalists, including the party leaders, Elfyn Llwyd, and
Alex Salmond, and two are Conservative frontbenchers, Boris Johnson, MP for Henley and editor of the
Spectator, and Nigel Evans, MP for Ribble Valley.
A number of Labour backbenchers are considering whether to back the motion, though it could
mean expulsion from the party.
The MPs' decision follows the commissioning of a 100-page report which lays out the case for
impeaching Mr Blair and the precedents for action, including arguments laid down in Erskine May, the
parliamentary bible, on impeachments dating back to medieval times.
The authors are Glen Rangwala, a lecturer in politics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and Dan
Plesch, honorary fellow of Birkbeck College, London.
Under the ancient right, which has never been repealed, it takes only one MP to move a motion and
the Speaker has to grant a debate on the impeachment. This means, at the least, Mr Blair will have to
face a fresh debate on his personal handling of the war and there will have to be a vote in parliament on
whether to institute impeachment proceedings.
In effect, impeachments were discontinued after Lord Palmerston, accused of concluding a secret
treaty with Russia, survived an impeachment debate in 1848. The proceedings were replaced with a
convention on ministerial responsibility, with ministers being forced to resign if they misled parliament.
The last two cases involved the Home Office minister Beverley Hughes, over immigration clearances in
Romania and Bulgaria, and Peter Mandelson over the Hinduja passports affair.
Mr Price said he believed the case was compelling. "To dust off Victorian constitutional histories and
examine precedents from the time of Charles I and Chaucer may seem bizarre. But the conduct of the
prime minister has left people and parliament with no alternative if we are to preserve the very basis of
democracy."
and this WITHOUT is APOLOGY for going to war UNDER FALSE PRETENSES
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