Home>News Center>World
         
 

UK politicians start bid to impeach Blair
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-25 00:23

Parliamentarians and celebrity campaigners launched a bid on Wednesday to impeach Tony Blair for "gross misconduct" over his justification for the Iraq war.

The impeachment move, a symbolic parliamentary process rather than a realistic proposition in Blair's case, is the first since the mid-19th century.

Its supporters, including well-known figures like novelist Frederick Forsyth and actor Corin Redgrave, want to punish Blair for allegedly misleading the country over the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

With only 23 lawmakers backing an impeachment motion in parliament, Blair can rest assured he will not face the ultimate sanction of removal from office but it could embarrass a prime minister who remains vulnerable to events in Iraq.

"This is born out of the frustration of many parliamentarians that we simply cannot hold the prime minister to account in any other way," said Jenny Tonge, member of parliament (MP) for the opposition Liberal Democrats.

"It doesn't matter where it goes. The important thing is to show we're trying," she told a news conference.

The motion calls for a select parliamentary committee to be established to examine Blair's conduct on Iraq and to report back within 48 days on whether there are grounds to impeach him.

Blair's Labour Party has a majority of more than 150 seats in the House of Commons. No Labour MPs have signed the motion although its backers say some in Labour secretly support it.

The MPs from various opposition parties hope to force a debate in parliament over Blair's pre-war assertion that Iraq's banned weapons posed a threat. No weapons of mass destruction have been found.

More MPs would likely have to back the motion for a debate to proceed.

Blair has been harangued over the war and his public trust and popularity ratings have plunged, although he remains well on track to win the next election, expected in May.

Under fire, Blair apologized earlier this year for wrong intelligence on Iraq but he will not say sorry for waging the war and insists he did not mislead parliament or the public.

"I see this as a chance for parliament to begin righting the great wrong done to it, the country and the cause of international peace by the unjust and illegal war instigated by George W. Bush and supported by Tony Blair," said Scottish author Iain Banks, who attended the news conference.

Welsh nationalist MP Adam Price started a campaign during the summer to have Blair impeached, publishing a 99-page report titled "A Case to Answer," which set out the legal argument.

It would be the first time the ancient parliamentary power of impeachment has been used in Britain since a failed attempt to prosecute a foreign secretary 198 years ago.



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

US$46,000 offered to nab Beijing drug dealers

 

   
 

China to audit senior military officers

 

   
 

Crash raises safety concerns

 

   
 

China, Cuba to stick to independent road

 

   
 

Donations of China to help Iraqi election

 

   
 

US rejects Ukrainian election results

 

   
  Chirac arrives in Libya for first ever visit
   
  Opposition calls for strike in Ukraine
   
  Brazil gets UN approval for uranium enrichment
   
  US soldiers find weapons caches in Fallujah
   
  Sudan rebels say air strike kills 25 fighters
   
  Pakistan's PM says peace with India hinges on Kashmir
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Blair puts British government on war footing
   
Chirac, Blair strive for unity after Iraq
   
Chirac decries Iraq war before London trip
   
France's Chirac: UK won nothing from Bush support
   
Blair to urge end to trans-Atlantic rift
   
Bush vows second-term push for Palestinian state
   
Blair, Bush consult on peace in Mideast
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement