Brown blamed for Blair 'snub' to MPs

Tony Blair's decision not to appear before MPs investigating the situation in Palestine has been described as "disgraceful".

The former prime minister was due to appear before the international development committee next Thursday but his office has cancelled "without explanation".

Speaking to ePolitix.com, shadow development secretary Andrew Mitchell said that it was because the contrast between Blair and his successor in Number 10 "would be so awful" just as Brown was trying to re-launch his premiership after the elections.

Mitchell said: "I think that Tony Blair has cried off because the contrast between him and the current prime minister would be so great and so awful for Gordon Brown that Blair was probably asked not to attend."

Asked whether this amounted to "playing politics" with the situation in Palestine he said: "Yes, I think it is a huge pity that Tony Blair is not going along to the select committee because this is a very important subject and Blair is the representative from the Quartet on the Middle East peace process and I think it is a very bad thing that he has snubbed the committee in this way. I think it is disgraceful."

In a separate ePolitix.com interview, the Liberal Democrat chairman of the committee Malcolm Bruce said in regards to the move that there was a "limit to how much messing about we can have".

Bruce said: "We put out a press notice last week saying that he was coming to give evidence and as soon as we did that his office rang us and said 'we can't come now'. They haven't given us an explanation.

"Our position is that we'd like the evidence so we can prepare the report so there is a limit to how much messing about we can have."

He went on: "We think it is quite important - after all, the Department for International Development is funding the office of the Quartet so it is right and proper to hear exactly what he is doing."

• Email Story
• IM Story
• Printable View
• Blog This
• Post a Comment

Recommend this article

Sponsored Links

(What’s this?)