Blair 'should be impeached'

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Blair 'should be impeached'

by KATIE HAMPSON, Mail online 14:17pm 27th August 2004

 

ony Blair should be impeached for misleading the

public over the Iraq war, the Mail online can reveal.

 

An all-party group of MPs is hoping to use the ancient

Parliamentary mechanism to bring the Prime Minister to

account.

 

Our poll - which you can still take part in - revealed

a staggering 88 per cent of our readers believe Blair

should be brought to trial in Westminster Hall. A mere

12 per cent of readers say it's time to leave Blair

alone and move on.

 

The overwhelming push to have Blair impeached can mean

only one thing - British people feel deceived. This

means public distrust of the Prime Minister has

reached new levels. It is one thing to exaggerate the

truth in everyday politics, another when those

embellishments and misleading words are used to

justify a war in which our soldiers are killed, and

innocent children die.

 

The power to impeach a Prime Minister has not been

used for 150 years when it was alleged that Lord

Palmerston had entered into a secret treaty with

Russia.

 

Misleading

 

But now MPs behind the party assault on Blair argue he

could be ousted on the grounds that he has breached

his constitutional duties as Premier.

 

They want him to be impeached for making assertions

about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction

that were contradicted by his own intelligence

assessments.

 

Alternatively, they say he could be charged with

making a private agreement with George Bush to take

Britain to war. This, along with deceiving the

Commons, is an impeachable offence.

 

Agreement with George Bush

 

Supporters of Blair have dismissed the attempt as a

'political stunt' with no chance of success.

 

But MPs are being issued with a report that reiterates

claims Blair exaggerated the condition of Saddam

Hussein's illegal weapons " well beyond the assessments

of the intelligence services or the United Nations

inspectors " .

 

The report will also argue that there is " strong

evidence " that Mr Blair assured President George Bush

that he would support an invasion in 2002, knowing

that the US had already decided to oust Saddam

regardless of any progress on Iraq's WMD.

 

In order to succeed, supporters of impeachment would

have to overturn Labour's massive Commons majority.

 

So far just three Tory MPs - Boris Johnson, Edward

Garnier and Nigel Evans - have said they will back the

move along with nine Scottish and Welsh nationalists.

 

MPs from other parties - including some Labour MPs -

have indicated privately that they are considering

whether to support a move to penalise Blair.

 

Counsel from Matrix Chambers - where the Prime

Minister's wife Cherie Blair practices as a QC - has

been asked to draw up a motion of impeachment which

will be published next month.

 

But as judgement day looms and MPs decide whether to

support the case for Blair's impeachment, his future

continues to hang in the balance.