Dr Jenny Tonge, MP for Richmond Park, joined the formal call for a debate in the House of Commons on the Prime Minister's gross misconduct in misleading Parliament and the public into the Iraq war.

Dr Tonge believes Tony Blair's misleading of Parliament and the country has destroyed the fundamental principle of parliamentary democracy that the government must tell the truth to Members of Parliament.

The cross-party group of MPs is united in its determination to preserve constitutional government in Britain, says Dr Tonge.

"They believe that the repeated, organised deceit that led the UK to war is there for all to see, and the constitutional conventions of cabinet government and ministerial accountability have failed," she said. "The Prime Minister himself sacked two ministers for breaking the constitutional convention of not misleading Parliament. By his own standards he should have resigned months ago.

"A debate on beginning impeachment proceedings is the only means left."

Dr Tonge continued: "We must make a stand or watch the democracy that we have fought for so often against foreign enemies be subverted from within. The rules of constitutional conduct have been brushed aside and the cabinet table has been replaced with the sofa, cabinet minutes with email, and the facts replaced with 'belief'.

"People say politicians do nothing and are all alike; today we make a stand for parliamentary democracy. We may fail, but we ask our colleagues and the people to help us restore the accountability of the government to parliament."

It was a historic moment: the placing of the motion of impeachment on the order paper of the House of Commons for the first time in 198 years. Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price, who started the initiative to impeach the Prime Minister was joined by Dr Jenny Tonge MP, the author Iain Banks, playwright Harold Pinter, musician Brian Eno, novelist Frederick Forsyth and representatives from Military Families Against the War, amongst others.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

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