MP to vote against war in historic vote - 18th March 2003

Ceredigion MP Simon Thomas has confirmed that he will vote against war in the crucial Commons vote tonight.

Speaking in London in advance of the historic debate, Mr Thomas said:

"The government have not made the case for war. Robin Cook, as former foreign secretary, stated that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction in any real sense of the word. We are going to war to protect the interests of American companies that funded Bush's way into power. This is the particular agenda of a particular part of the Republican party in the USA and in no way reflects the wishes of many Americans or the wider international community.

"The failure to get a second resolution at the UN should have been the warning to stop war. The government is playing the blame game in trying to get France to carry the responsibility, but in fact a majority of the Security Council were against military action now. France spoke for many in the world when she opposed war."

Addressing the Plaid Cymru spring conference in Llangollen on Saturday, Mr Thomas had been cheered when he pledged "nous sommes Francais".

Mr Thomas added that our thoughts should be with Ceredigion sons and daughters who are in the armed forces.

Mr Thomas has been a long-standing advocate of the United Nations approach to the Iraq crisis and is one of the key sponsors of the cross-party amendment to the Government's motion:

Line 2, leave out from `1441' to `in' in line 21 and insert `believes that the case for war against Iraq has not yet been established, especially given the absence of specific United Nations authorisation; but, in the event that hostilities do commence, pledges its total support for the British forces engaged in the Middle East, expresses its admiration for their courage, skill and devotion to duty, and hopes that their tasks will be swiftly concluded with minimal casualties on all sides'

Speaking last night at the time of Robin Cook's resignation, Mr Thomas asked the Government to confirm that they would listen to the voice of the Commons.

Plaid Cymru's Simon Thomas said:

"Though the Government is not legally bound to pay attention to the vote in this House, will you give an undertaking that it will be honour bound to pay attention to that vote?"

Every MP's vote should count and the debate must end with a "real vote" on whether to go to war or not, he added during a statement on today's business.

Mr Thomas insisted:

"If the vote does go against the Government, the Government must not go to war."

Deputy Commons leader Mr Bradshaw told him:

"This Government has bent over backwards to honour the commitments it has made to this House both in the past and it will do so tomorrow in an unprecedented way to give this opportunity for this House to express its will..."

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