Blair survives vote for inquiry into Iraq war conduct
By M. Ziauddin
LONDON, Nov 1: Unlike in the US where the Democrats and an increasing number of Republicans are mauling President Bush on Iraq war, the opposition in Britain still appears to be a lap or two behind Prime Minister Tony Blair on the issue.
All the three major opposition parties – the Conservatives, the Liberals, the Nationalists – and about 12 Labour rebels fell short by 25 votes in the Commons on Tuesday to force Mr Blair to set up an immediate parliamentary inquiry into the Iraq war and its aftermath.
However, it was clear from the way the government responded to the opposition’s telling arguments during the three-hour long debate that though the numbers were still on the side of the former, the verdict was obviously in favour of those demanding inquiry. In fact, while winding up the debate, foreign secretary Margaret Beckett did not rule out an inquiry at a later stage, saying no doubt at some point lessons would have to be learned.
After the vote, defence secretary Des Browne appeared to go further than the foreign secretary in accepting some form of inquiry will have to be held. He told BBC News 24: “When the time is right, of course there will be such an inquiry.”
Downing Street later described the statement as a slip of the tongue and that the prime minister’s office remained opposed to the inquiry.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague responded to Mr Browne by claiming the Conservative stance had been vindicated. “We clearly did make progress today. This morning the government was resisting an inquiry, this evening they have conceded one,” he said.
In the first full Commons debate on Iraq since the invasion in 2003, the government survived the call for an inquiry led by the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists by 298 to 273. Formally, the government has a majority of 66.
Ms Beckett fended off the demands for an immediate inquiry, saying it would send the message to British troops and to the Iraqi insurgency that there was a weakening of the British commitment.
Defence minister Adam Ingram also characterised an inquiry now as “a show trial for narrow political purposes. It is not about establishing new facts or new evidence”.
Observers said many anti-war Labour MPs, including those who have supported as many as three separate Commons motions calling for an inquiry, held back from rebellion, partly because they were reluctant last night to give any political succour to the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists.
Some of the opposition members branded the Iraq war a “monumental catastrophe” and the “worst foreign policy disaster since Suez.”
They warned of a “breakdown in our system of government and a fault line in our constitution”, which allowed the prime minister to take the country to war on flawed intelligence.
They said the inquiry needed to address three central questions — how the government could take us to war on claims that turned out to be false, when was the decision for this war actually made and why has the planning for and conduct of the occupation proved so disastrous.
