Iraq war remains major obstacle to Tony Blair’s political comeback

Tony Blair’s plan for a return to politics will have to overcome an old obstacle that won’t go away: his decision to take the UK into the Iraq war.

Lawmakers from seven political parties made a coordinated move on Wednesday to hold the former prime minister to account for his actions in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. They put forward a motion arguing that the UK Parliament should hold a series of investigations into Blair’s role in the conflict.

“Blair’s premeditated and calculated commitment” to US President George W. Bush “that ‘I will be with you whatever’ will forever ring loud for the millions who marched against the war, to the families of dead soldiers and to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who lost their lives,” Alex Salmond, the Scottish National Party’s international affairs spokesman, said in a statement before the debate. 

“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.”

Blair, who stepped down as prime minister after 10 years in 2007, was criticised for his role in the Iraq conflict earlier this year in a public inquiry led by John Chilcot. The former premier said last week he’s dismayed by the state of western politics, with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, and wants to create a new space for political debate.

“The information that we had from the Chilcot report makes it unsustainable to argue for anything other than this Parliament was grievously misled,” Salmond said as he introduced Wednesday’s debate. “Parliamentary accountability – an examination of statements made to Parliament and the public against the facts as we now know them – would be a valuable additional sanction and tool in restraining future prime ministers from any such course of events.”