Impeach Blair campaign

Viability

In the US, impeachment has been used against a President as recently as 1999 and on multiple occasions since against federal judges, but in the UK the most recent previous impeachment motion was made in 1848 (by Thomas Chisholm Anstey against the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, who was accused of concluding a secret treaty with Russia). The campaigners first needed to establish that impeachment was still viable in modern politics. On 17 November 2004 the speaker ruled their motion in order and it was tabled for the next session.

Initial Presentation

In August 2004, Adam Price MP commissioned and published the report: A Case to Answer: a first report on the potential impeachment of the Prime Minister for High Crimes and Misdemeanours in relation to the invasion of Iraq. The document was written by Dr Glen Rangwala (lecturer of politics at University of Cambridge) and Dan Plesch (Honorary Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London.) The report is 111 pages and divided into two sections.

Section I

The first part of the report details evidence for charges that an MP could use when moving for impeachment. The evidence detailed by the report suggests that Tony Blair:

made unsupported statements to the house and the public;

failed to report counter-evidence;

failed to verify claims in the evidence;

failed to remove errors found in the evidence; and

made a secret agreement with US President George W. Bush to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

Section II

The second part examines the history of impeachment proceedings and looks at the possibility of bringing impeachment proceedings in modern government. It also gives the impeachable offences for which it claims Tony Blair must offer a defence:

failing to resign after misleading parliament and the country;

making a secret agreement with a foreign power;

undermining the constitution; and

negligence and incompetence.

Finally, it gave precedents for considering the conduct of a Prime Minister.

Legal Opinion

The campaign hired solicitor Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers to represent their case. They have also asked Matrix Chambers to draw up a legal opinion. Matrix is known for its advocacy of human rights cases and for being the chambers of Blair's wife, Cherie Booth QC. Booth was not involved in the case due to the obvious conflict of interest.

Drafting Team

The drafting team for the motion was announced on 13 October 2004:

Douglas Hogg QC MP

Edward Garnier QC MP

Elfyn Llwyd MP

Alex Salmond MP

It appeared that the team would also draft the articles of impeachment. In earlier impeachment cases, this has usually been done after the motion, although it also occurred first in the case of Warren Hastings.

The drafting team completed the text of the impeachment motion on 7 November 2004.

The Impeachment Motion

Impeachment Motion – Conduct of the Prime Minister in relation to the war against Iraq That a select committee of not more than 13 Members be appointed to investigate and to report to the House on the conduct of the Prime Minister in relation to the war against Iraq and in particular to consider; (a) the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group that in March 2003 Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction and had been essentially free of them since the mid 1990s (b) the Prime Minister’s acknowledgement that he was wrong when in and before March 2003 he asserted that Iraq was then in possession of chemical or biological weapons or was then engaged in active efforts to develop nuclear weapons or was thereby a current or serious threat to the UK national interest or that possession of WMD then enabled Iraq to inflict real damage upon the region and the stability of the world (c) the opinion of the Secretary General of the United Nations that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was unlawful (d) whether there exist sufficient grounds to impeach the Rt Hon Tony Blair on charges of gross misconduct in his advocacy of the case for war against Iraq and in his conduct of policy in connection with that war. That the Committee shall within 48 days of its appointment report to this House such resolutions, articles of impeachment or other recommendations as it shall think fit.

The legal advisers to the speaker approved the wording of the motion on 17 November 2004. The motion was tabled for the first day of the next session (the day after the Queen's Speech) on 24 November 2004. However, the main three parties forbade their MPs from signing the motion and it was never selected for debate.

If the motion had been selected, it would have allowed MPs to debate matters that parliamentary language otherwise forbids. For example, on 17 March 2005, the anniversary of going to war, Adam Price accused Tony Blair of misleading the house. Because this breached the rules of parliamentary language, he was required to leave the House for the remainder of the day. However, such rules only apply to debate within the House. In press and radio and television interviews, other MPs have accused Blair of lying to the House and to the British People, including then opposition leader Michael Howard.

Support

The following members of the previous Parliament supported the original impeachment motion:

Other supporters

Green Party of England and Wales

Stop the War Coalition

Jimmy Reid

Frederick Forsyth

Terry Jones

Harold Pinter

Iain Banks

Brian Eno

Corin Redgrave

Current status

Despite the lack of debate on the original impeachment motion, Adam Price has pledged to continue his campaign. However, with the resignation of Blair on 27 June 2007, the entire issue of impeachment could be seen as moot.

In the United Kingdom, "Impeachment is when a peer or commoner is accused of high crimes and misdemeanours, beyond the reach of the law or which no other authority in the state will prosecute. It is a procedure that is ‘directed in particular against Ministers of the Crown’. The first recorded impeachment was in 1376 and the last in 1806. This procedure is considered obsolete."

In November 2005, the campaign announced a new motion (this time with the support of the Liberal Democrats) asking for a Commons committee to examine the conduct of ministers before and after the war.

On 23 November 2005, the campaign tabled an Early Day Motion:

"Conduct of Government Policy in relation to the war against Iraq" That this House believes that there should be a select committee of 7 Members, being members of her Majesty's Privy Council, to review the way in which the responsibilities of Government were discharged in relation to Iraq and all matters relevant thereto, in the period leading up to military action in that country in March 2003 and in its aftermath.

The motion has collected 151 signatures, including some Labour back-benchers. Tam Dalyell, then Labour Party MP for Linlithgow said:

Further information

A Case To Answer and the legal opinion are now also available in printed form (ISBN 0-85124-704-0) from Spokesman Books.