
In 2 weeks time the long awaited Chilcott Report into
the Iraq War is widely expected to savage ex British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair and others have done their best, it seems, to delay the report, but its
publication is now imminent. A cross-party group of MPs is preparing to press
for Tony Blair to be prosecuted for War Crimes. Of even greater concern,
though, amongst Blairite supporters and many Tories and establishment
figures, Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, has made clear
that he will request that the Prime Minister establish a Tribunal to investigate
Tony Blair for War Crimes. It is against such a background that the Blairite
faction of the Labour Party is making desperate attempts to remove Corbyn in
advance of the Chilcott Report's publication. If Corbyn should indeed succeed
in making such a request of the Prime Minister, it will be difficult for Cameron to refuse and it will be without precedent in British history that a
Prime Minister should be subjected to scrutiny for such serious offences. Indeed, there
will have been nothing comparable in Europe since the Nuremburg Trials after
World War II.
In the past 3 days, in a highly coordinated and
preplanned series of actions, Shadow Labour Ministers and spokespersons
have resigned on an hourly basis and tweeted "letters of resignation" with the
intention of creating maximum media impact and building pressure on Corbyn to
resign. The timing and ostensible reason has been given as the somewhat flimsy
claim that Corbyn was not sufficiently robust in support of the Remain Campaign in the EU Referendum - but this can hardly be given much credence: a majority of Labour MPs
have never supported Corbyn and have privately fumed that the Labour Party as a
whole selected Corbyn to lead them. It is nothing new that Corbyn's election as
their leader has rankled with them ever since and that they have lacked a sufficient
reason to seek his removal: their seizing upon an apparent failure to show sufficient
enthusiasm for the "Remain" case has given them the thinnest of pretexts.
But
their timing and the desperation exhibited is driven by an almost feverish fear
that their erstwhile leader Tony Blair may be propelled another step down the
road to facing trial in the Hague for crimes against humanity. In this the
Blairites have the support of senior Tories: the outgoing Prime Minister David
Cameron told Corbyn on 29th June in the House of Commons "For Heaven's sake man,
go!" to general astonishment, echoing the words of Leopold Amery MP to Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain during the Norway Debate in 1940. It was unique in
that Cameron -himself now in the role of caretaker Prime Minister - was demanding
that the leader of the Opposition resign and it points to the desperation mounting
to remove Corbyn at this critical moment. His reason for making this extraordinary
demand is prompted by growing concern amongst senior politicians and Whitehall
Civil Servants that Cameron could be placed in a position where he is asked by
the official Leader of the Opposition to institute War Crimes investigations
against a previous British Prime Minister. Whitehall is alarmed at the precedent
it may set and the impact it may have on future Prime Ministers and policy
making if acts taken by them and by their Ministers subsequently lead to their
investigation and even prosecution for such serious charges. Of course, there is
a fear that it may also lead to investigations of other UK Ministers, Generals
and Civil Servants involved in many of the actions which led to invasion of
Iraq.
Jeremy Corbyn is currently under enormous pressure on
all sides to resign. He undoubtedly has enormous popular support within the
Labour Party, but it may well prove impossible for him to resist the pressure or to
survive on the basis of popular support alone. Yet it is important that he does so if
the millions of victims of the Iraq War and its aftermath are to receive
justice. No Western leader has ever faced a War Crimes
charge or stood in the Dock at the Hague: the UK is desperate that it should not
be the first to do so. The next 2 weeks and the fate of Jeremy Corbyn are crucial in whether Blair does indeed take another step towards the Hague.
I was educated at the University of Manchester, Swansea University and the Polytechnic of Wales, where I studied History, Philosophy and Intellectual and Art History (MA). I have lived and worked in Ireland, Germany and Holland and the UK as a (more...)