The motion, which Davis will submit on Thursday with the support of 20 MPs, could see Blair brought to the bar of the House by the Serjeant-at-Arms to apologise for the war.
Advertisement
Lord Prescott said he was “pleased Jeremy Corbyn has apologised on behalf of the Labour Party to the relatives of those who died and suffered injury”.
The landmark Chilcot Inquiry, which has been investigating the 2003 invasion since 2009, said last week that Mr Blair’s intelligence case for the attack on Iraq was “not justified”.
The comments come after Lord Prescott, the deputy prime minister at the time of the 2003 invasion said the war was illegal.
Davis told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show the motion would state “that Tony Blair has held the House in contempt”. At the same time, he said that he had taken the decision (of invading Iraq) in good faith, taking into consideration the evidence that was available to him at that time.
“That is surely how a parliamentary democracy works”.
Asked if he would back the motion, he said: “I haven’t seen it yet, but I think I probably would”.
Davis has received support from 20 MPs including the SNP former First Minister Alex Salmond.
The 2.3 million word long, 13 volume report found Blair rushed to war prematurely, plotting with George Bush to oust Saddam as early as December 2001.
He said: “I can look those families and the country in the eye and tell them I did not mislead them”.
Prescott wrote that the report was “a damning indictment of how the Blair government handled the war – and I take my fair share of blame”. The Chilcot report did that.
Despite widespread criticism, which intensified following the report’s publication, Blair has insisted that he would “take the same decision [again]”. “The timing of the decision was clearly created to endorse an nearly immediate action for us to go to war”.
“In 2004, the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that as regime change was the prime aim of the Iraq War, it was illegal”. He has also indicated he will “stand with” bereaved families who are considering legal action against Mr Blair.
The former Prime Minister, who led his party to three successive general election victories, could also be stripped of his membership of the Privy Council.
Tony Blair and former US President George W Bush claimed to act on behalf of the global community “to uphold the authority of the Security Council”.
According to a Lancet Survey, the Iraq war resulted in the death of 179 British soldiers and more than 600,000 Iraqis. Roger Bacon, whose son Matthew died when his Snatch Land Rover was hit by an improvised explosive device in Basra in September 2005, named Mr Blair as someone who might face legal action.
Advertisement
While Chilcot did contain damning criticism of the decisions behind the invasion, there has been a strong emphasis that the Inquiry is “not a court of law”. The former prime minister was criticised in the Chilcot Report for leading the United Kingdom into the conflict before exhausting all other options and without having a credible post-war plan. “Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated and the planning for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate”.
