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It was Tony Blair’s government that got rid of the principle of “double jeopardy” in English law (the principle that you cannot be put on trial for the same crime twice). So there is something appropriate about the fact that, although the Chilcot inquiry effectively cleared Blair of lying to MPs as he made the case for war, the Commons is going to debate a motion saying that Blair did mislead parliament and that this should be investigated.
The motion has been tabled by the SNP and this is what it says:
That this House recognises that the Chilcot Inquiry 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 as shown most clearly in the contrast between private correspondence to the United States government and public statements to Parliament and to the people and also in the presentation of intelligence information; and calls on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, further to its current investigation into the lessons to be learned from the Chilcot Inquiry for the machinery of government, to conduct a further specific examination of this contrast in public and private policy and of the presentation of intelligence, and then to report to the House on what further action it considers necessary and appropriate to help prevent any repetition of this disastrous series of events.
At a time when Blair is planning his political comeback, it is high time that this parliament and its committees at long last brought this dark stain on UK foreign policy to a close by investigating how such grave misleading occurred and taking the appropriate action to avoid it happening again.
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Sig Nordal 