| I was one of 122 Labour MPs (121
and a teller) who voted against the Government in support of a cross party motion on 26
February. The text of the Government Motion was:
"That this House takes note of Command Paper Cm 5769
on Iraq; reaffirms its endorsement of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, as
expressed in its Resolution of 24th November 2002; suports the Government's continuing
efforts in the United Nations to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction; and calls
upon Iraq to recognise this as its final opportunity to comply with its disamrmament
obligations."
The text of the amendment that the ‘rebel’ MPs supported
was:
"leave out from 'destruction' to end and add 'but
finds the case for military action against Iraq as yet unproven'."
This amendment was backed by almost a third of the Parliamentary
Labour Party and there are many who did support the Government who would be very unhappy
if Tony Blair authorises war without a clear UN mandate and in this event they would be
likely to join with yesterday’s rebels. My own views have always been in line with
public opinion (which is not always the case, I make my decisions based on the strength of
the arguments) but clearly, on Iraq, public opinion is having as much of an impact on the
way MPs vote as the Whips normally do. If you are a constituent, please click here to email me with your views. If you are
not one of my constituents and want to lobby your MP, you can find out who this is by
checking www.locata.co.uk/commons
or by calling 020 7219 4272.
If
you are interested in reading some of the debate, click here to go to the Hansard record
of proceedings for 26 February
Or you can look this up via www.parliament.uk |