Tony Blair must face new investigation over Iraq, MPs demand

MPs are calling for a parliamentary commmittee to investigate whether Mr Blair misled parliament and the public

'This is not about my returning to the front line of politics. I have made it abundantly clear that this is not possible' (PA)

Several MPs are seeking a new investigation into Tony Blair's role in the Iraq war.

MPs from six parties are preparing to table a Commons motion calling for a parliamentary committee to investigate whether Mr Blair misled parliament and the public in the run up to the war in 2003, The Observer reports.

The motion will be debated on Wednesday, in Commons time allotted to the SNP.

The motion calls on MPs to recognise that the Chilcot inquiry into the war “provided substantial evidence of misleading information 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 people”.

It also asks the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee to examine the differences between Mr Blair's public and private policy.

The motion is supported by SNP MP Alex Salmond, Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas and Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Hywel Williams, as well as senior Tory and Labour Mps.

Mr Salmond said the committee could recommend Mr Blair is stripped of his membership of the privy council.

The Chilcot Inquiry, published in June, concluded the secret intelligence reports Mr Blair received "did not justify" his certainty Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

When he appeared before the Commons liaison committee, Sir John Chilcot said: “I absolve him [Mr Blair] from a personal and demonstrable decision to deceive parliament or the public — to state falsehoods, knowing them to be false.”