Lib Dems round on Iraq policy
On the opening day of their party conference, senior Liberal Democrats have lined up to criticise the Government’s policy on Iraq.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesman, said that all around the world Britain was associated with unilateralism in Iraq.
“Trust in the Prime Minister has fallen at home and trust in Britain has fallen abroad,” he said.
Earlier, the Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy demanded that the Prime Minister apologise for the mistakes in Iraq, and the outgoing House of Lords leader Baroness Shirley Williams branded the military action the “greatest diplomatic blunder since Suez”.
In a keynote speech on foreign policy, Sir Menzies said that Britain’s foreign policy achievements on human rights and debt relief have been undermined by the war in Iraq.
He argued that Britain was once regarded as a champion of human rights in Burman, Zimbabwe and the Middle East and a country prepared to intervene in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. “But these foreign policy achievements have been undermined, discounted and devalued. Our reputation and respect have been diluted and dissipated, and all because of Iraq”.
The Lib Dem deputy leader said recent media reports that the Government knew twelve months beforehand that regime change was illegal, that it was always an objective and that disarmament and weapons of mass destruction were just a blind and showed why the Government had resisted an inquiry and why the Attorney General’s legal advice had not been published.
“The public and politicians should have known. We were entitled to know,” he said.
He added: “If I seem angry it is not because I was deceived over Iraq, it is because I was right. I am angry for a House of Commons that was persuaded to vote for a war on a false prospectus.”
On the Middle East, Sir Menzies said a just settlement seemed further away than ever. And he was critical of the failure by Tony Blair and George Bush to condemn Ariel Sharon’s actions.
“The Middle East Road Map has been rolled up. Unilateral action by Mr Sharon has passed without comment by the UK and approved by the US.”
Sir Menzies argued that Britain would be a better ally to the US if it exercised independent judgement and independent thought. The partnership between Britain and the US should be a partnership of interest and Britain should not be so subordinate that at times it appeared to be subservient, he said.
Turning to Europe, he said Britain needed to decide where it stood and urged the Government to be more decisive in putting across the case for an EU Constitution.
“Alongside the Government we shall argue for an affirmative vote, but we are entitled to expect the Government to raise its game and to put the case with more passion and commitment than we have seen so far.”
He also criticised the change in stance by the Conservatives on the Iraq war. Citing their “conversion from cheerleaders to critics” he described them as the “wobblers of Westminster”.
