Friendship with America threatens British Prime Minister with “impeachment”

Iraq crisis
The consequences of the Iraq war for Great Britain may turn out to be unprecedented: with the start of a military operation, the country will face mass strikes and civil disobedience, and Prime Minister Tony Blair will face an almost inevitable resignation. The “alternative” parliament gathered in London accused him of destroying democracy, and a number of Labor deputies in the present parliament announced the beginning of the “impeachment” procedure for the prime minister. Kommersant correspondent in London VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA provides details.
The British are called to the barricades
For the first time since 1990, when a nationwide rebellion over tax reform led to the resignation of Margaret Thatcher's government, Britain is on the verge of mass civil disobedience. Already at its first meeting in London, the British People's Assembly, conceived by the organizers as an “alternative” parliament, called for the resignation of the prime minister.
The idea of convening a people's assembly arose among left-wing deputies of the British Parliament after the February vote in the House of Commons on the issue of war with Iraq. Despite the fact that, according to all polls, more than 80% of the British are against starting a war without UN sanctions, less than a third of parliamentarians (199 out of 659) voted to condemn the war plans of George Bush and Tony Blair. Concluding that “Parliament has shown itself to be incapable of representing public opinion,” a number of prominent Labor members, including MPs George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn, as well as veteran English leftist Tony Benn, announced the convening of an “alternative” Parliament. As Mr. Corbyn explained in a recent interview with Kommersant, “the purpose of the people's assembly is to tell parliament: 'Wake up!'”
More than a thousand delegates took part in the first meeting of the national assembly. In addition to the parliamentarians who voted against the war, the assembly included representatives of trade unions, universities, local Labor committees, other left-wing parties and public organizations that are part of the nationwide Stop the War coalition. The People's Assembly met in Westminster Hall, located opposite parliament, the conference center where the first meeting of the UN General Assembly was held in 1946.
The speeches of the delegates were striking in their radicalism. Calling Tony Blair a “medieval king,” Labor leader Tony Benn spoke of the need to “restore democracy and international law to Great Britain.” “By ignoring democratic procedures, he (Tony Blair - Kommersant ) freed us from the moral obligation to agree with his decisions. Now we are free and can follow our conscience,” Mr. Benn said, clearly hinting at the need for civil disobedience to government policies. According to Mr. Benn, the prime minister is giving the order to British troops to “commit war crimes.”
The head of the British railway union, Bob Crowe, was even more frank: he called on the British population to resist the authorities - in particular, to block all roads and transport routes. “Then no power in the world will be able to stop us!” - supported colleague Tony Benn.
The idea of civil resistance was also approved by the chairman of the Stop the War coalition, Andrew Murray. Instructions for organizing a protest and strike on the day of the start of the military operation against Iraq have already been published on the website of this movement. Mr. Murray announced the main slogan of the movement - “Stop the war and fire the prime minister!”

"Impeachment" of Blair: pros and cons

The first step has already been taken. A number of Labor members of the House of Commons, including Tam Dial, Hilton Dawson and John McDonnell, have announced their readiness to begin the procedure for the removal of Tony Blair from the post of party leader and, accordingly, the head of the UK government in the event of war breaking out without the sanction of the UN Security Council. “It is difficult to overstate the illegality of what is being proposed,” Mr. Diel said on the radio. “Many local Labor Party organizations, including mine, will raise the question of the possibility of his continued tenure with the Prime Minister.” Mark Seddon, a member of Labour's national executive committee (the party's highest governing body), made it clear that if Mr Blair ignores the opinion of the UN Security Council, "a large number of MPs and trade unionists" on the executive committee will be ready to raise the question of his removal from office.

How to “impeach” the British Prime Minister

Under the current UK parliamentary system of government, the prime minister is the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, and Tony Blair's removal from the post of head of Labor will automatically mean his resignation from the prime minister's post. According to the Labor Party charter, to begin the impeachment procedure, it is necessary to collect the signatures of 20% of the members of the parliamentary faction, that is, 83 deputies. Considering that 122 Labor members voted to condemn the prime minister's position on Iraq two weeks ago, this does not pose any particular difficulty. After this, the Labor Party's national executive committee must consider calling an extraordinary party convention, at which delegates must call an early election for the party leader with the participation of all ordinary party members, the vast majority of whom are against the war. The greatest chances to win the election and take the prime minister's chair today are the Minister of Finance Gordon Brown, the Minister of Education Charles Clarke and the former head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Robin Cook.
Today, when most of his party and faction comrades and even some members of his government have turned their backs on Tony Blair, the parliamentary opposition remains the last reliable support. It was the Conservative votes that saved Mr Blair in the February vote on Iraq. Recently, Deputy Head of the Conservative Party and Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram again publicly supported the Prime Minister's Iraq policy. “Saddam is dangerous now, when he is just developing weapons of mass destruction,” said Mr. Ankram. “When he develops them, the danger will be even greater. We will support Tony Blair on Iraq as long as he does what needs to be done. We are not going to play political games to the detriment of national interests."

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 43 dated March 14, 2003, p. 9

Authors:

Vladimir Kara-Murza

People against Tony Blair