Tony Blair did not deceive Parliament to take Britain into Iraq War, MPs rule

30 Nov, 2016 17:12

MPs have voted down a motion on whether or not former Prime Minister Tony Blair should be held to account for allegedly deceiving Parliament to take Britain into the 2003 Iraq invasion.

The motion was led by Scottish National Party (SNP) foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond and a range of other MPs from the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru – as well as some from the Labour and Conservative camps.

Some 439 MPs voted in defense of Blair while only 70 voted he should be held to account.

The motion said the Chilcot report, published in July, “provided substantial evidence of misleading information being presented by the then prime minister and others on the development of the then government’s policy towards the invasion of Iraq.”

It was opposed by the section of right-wing Labour MPs who subscribe to Blair’s ideas, several of whom argued that the debate was an SNP ploy to split Labour.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected partly on the basis of his opposition to Blair-era misadventures, and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell have also attracted criticism for their decision not to attend the debate.

Green co-leader Caroline Lucas said it was a mistake not to attend.

“Top figures in the Labour Party like Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell fought long and hard against the Iraq War, and have called for those who led us into the disastrous conflict to be held to account,” she told the Guardian.

“To now back away from taking the action to match their words would be deeply disappointing and would damage the prospects of learning serious lessons from what went wrong in the run-up to war in Iraq,” Lucas added.

The Stop the War Coalition, of which Corbyn was once president, also released a statement saying justice is well overdue.

“Stop the War fully supports the motion put forward by Alex Salmond in Parliament today calling for a further examination of Tony Blair’s conduct in the run-up to the Iraq War,” the Coalition said.

“There remains much unfinished business after the Chilcot report. Despite the spin surrounding it, the report showed that Tony Blair knowingly tried to deceive Parliament when he said no early decision had been made to attack Iraq and that regime change was not the goal of the invasion.”

Gordon:

Regardless of the parliamentary investigation vote for motion accusing Tony Blair of misleading parliament over the Iraq war the British people are defiant that Blair remains guilty and yet again shows how out of  touch MP’s are with the reality of the situation and their constituents.

Only the truly committed will drudge through every one of the 2.6 million words of the Chilcot Report which has cost the taxpayer £10m. Furthermore, It’s utterly contemptible to think that taxpayers will be obliged to pay all Tony Blair’s legal bills if he is sued by the families of soldiers killed in Iraq.

How’s that for pie in the face!