Blair: Facing impeachment demands

A Welsh nationalist MP has launched a parliamentary bid to have Tony Blair impeached.

Plaid Cymru's Adam Price announced on Thursday that lawyers from Cherie Booth's Matrix legal chambers had been asked to draw up a draft motion of impeachment on the charges against the prime minister.

A spokesman for Welsh Labour has accused Price of "naked opportunism".

But at a Westminster press conference, the MP said there was cross-party support for the move.

In addition to the nine Plaid Cymru and SNP members of parliament, it was announced that Conservative MPs Boris Johnson, Nigel Evans and Edward Garnier were backing the move.

There had also been discussions with "several" anonymous Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, Price said.

Jenny Tonge of the Lib Dems later announced she was also backing the campaign.

The basis of the impeachment claim is that the prime minister "knowingly" misled parliament on the case for war with Iraq.

The failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in the country and the prime minister's exaggerated claims prompted the MPs to seek a new means to hold the government to account.

Expressing frustration with the failure of other parliamentary procedures, Price said that resurrecting the impeachment procedures, which have remained unused for over 150 years, was the only option available.

Price said that the evidence compiled in a dossier for the impeachment campaign "suggests to me an organised deception on the part of the prime minister in taking the country to war".

"We have to defend the basic principle of democratic government, that is the principle of accountability," he added.

"I am confident that many of our parliamentary colleagues will see what we have seen."

Procedural doubts

Despite the launch of the campaign, there is no guarantee that the impeachment proceedings will actually be discussed in parliament.

Plaid argued that previous practice meant it would be "unprecedented" for the speaker not to allow a debate on an impeachment motion.

But the party also admitted that the final decision was left to the discretion of speaker Michael Martin.

If the bid does get the green light, MPs will decide on the accusations and make the prosecution in the House of Lords which acts as the jury.

If peers find the prime minister guilty then the issue would be referred back to the Commons for "sentencing".

Price said that while the punishment would be a decision of the House, the removal of the prime minister from office would be the key aim.

SNP backing

The Welsh nationalist MP has been backed by the SNP's Westminster leader Alex Salmond.

"There is no more serious charge than leading the country to war based on a lie," said Salmond.

"This devastating dossier clearly sets how the prime minister lied, disassembled and misled both parliament and the country throughout this sorry process. 

"If ministers such as Beverly Hughes can do the honourable thing and resign for misleading parliament, the questions have to be asked - are the prime minister's actions more serious than these examples, and if so, why has he not resigned?"

Plaid attacked

A spokesman for Welsh Labour said the nationalists had fought last June's elections as a referendum on Iraq but had been "punished by the Welsh people".

"On the day that Wales has outperformed England and Northern Ireland in the GCSE results, the nationalists should be joining us in praising our students and our teachers for their hard work to achieve such excellence," continued the spokesman.

"Across Wales, the majority of people have always chosen the Labour Party for our positive agenda of working towards better public services, a strong economy and safer streets.

"Most people have rejected the separatist party's policy vacuum, other than cutting Wales adrift and scoring cheap political points.

"This is naked opportunism from an ambitious young man, who appears to care more about his own career than that of GCSE students in his Carmarthenshire constituency."