In November 2004, a cross-party group of British members of parliament tabled a motion in the House of Commons to impeach the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, Tony Blair for " high crimes and misdemeanours". The motion was never debated.

Viability

In the UK the most recent previous impeachment motion was made in 1848 (by

Thomas Chisholm Anstey Thomas Chisholm Anstey (1816 – 12 August 1873) was an English lawyer and one of the first Catholic parliamentarians in the nineteenth century. He served as Attorney General of Hong Kong for 4 years. He also wrote pamphlets on legal and politi ...

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, Plaid Cymru MP

Adam Price Adam Robert Price (born 23 September 1968) is a Welsh politician serving as the Leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018. , he has sat in the Senedd for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, having previously been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Carmart ...

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 , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

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

barristers' chambers In law, a barrister's chambers or barristers' chambers are the rooms used by a barrister or a group of barristers. The singular refers to the use by a sole practitioner whereas the plural refers to a group of barristers who, while acting as sol ...

of Blair's wife and Queen's Counsel,

Cherie Booth Cherie, Lady Blair, (; born 23 September 1954), also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Tony Blair. Early life and education Booth ...

. 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: File:DouglasHogg 20040917.jpg, Douglas Hogg File:Edward Garnier, Solicitor General.jpg, Edward Garnier File:Elfyn Llwyd MP.jpg, Elfyn Llwyd File:Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland (cropped).jpg, Alex Salmond 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.

Impeachment motion

The legal advisers to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, 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 A speech from the throne, or throne speech, is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign, or a representative thereof, reads a prepared speech to members of the nation's legislature when a Legislative session, session is ...

) 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, 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 Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...

References

External links

* * *{{cite news , url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4358313.stm , title=Adam Price thrown out of the commons , publisher=BBC News , date=17 March 2005 Political campaigns in the United Kingdom Tony Blair Blair, Tony 2004 establishments in the United Kingdom Cross-party campaigns