Short tries to give MPs power to veto war plans

Clare Short, who resigned from the Cabinet over the Iraq war, is bringing in a Bill that would compel Mr Blair - and any other Prime Minister - to seek Parliament's consent for any future military action.

Her private member's Bill is expected to win substantial backing from MPs in the Commons today, but government business managers will almost certainly use Parliament's complex rules to stop it becoming law. Mr Blair is opposing the measure, which he says would deny British forces the element of surprise that might be vital in some future conflict.

Writing in today's Independent, Ms Short describes the Prime Minister's power to make war as "profoundly undemocratic", and warns "this personalised power leads to ill-considered decisions".

She also drops a hint that her Bill has the tacit backing of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the Blairite former cabinet minister Stephen Byers.

"Both Gordon Brown and Stephen Byers have said since the Iraq war that Parliament and not the Prime Minister should make the final decision about whether the country goes to war," she writes.

Mr Byers is expected to vote for Ms Short's Bill today, but Mr Brown, as a member of the Cabinet, will oppose the measure in public, whatever his private views.

The Short Bill would require the Prime Minister to set out a report to the Commons and the House of Lords saying why he wants to send troops to war. He would also have to cite the legal authority for war - a live issue because of the continuing controversy over the legality of the Iraq war - and give an indication of how long and over how wide an area he expects the war to be fought.

She also included clauses that would allow the Prime Minister to send in the troops first, and then go to Parliament for retrospective approval. Ms Short argues that this answers Tony Blair's point that there will be situations in which it is necessary to retain the element of surprise.

But the Prime Minister's supporters say that it would be wrong to send troops into battle when there was a risk that Parliament might overrule the Prime Minister and order them to pull out.

The Bill follows a report last year by the Commons Committee on Public Administration, calling for a reform of the Royal Prerogative, which supposedly gives the monarch the sole power to send British troops to war. In practice, Ms Short alleges, it puts the Prime Minister beyond the reach of democratic control.

"The Prime Minister could argue that the way in which he secretly gave his word to President Bush in April 2002 that he would support him in an attack on Iraq was within his power," she writes.

"And, similarly the way the advice on the legality of war was manipulated, the risks of weapons of mass destruction exaggerated, and the position of France misreported, was legitimate as a way for the Prime Minister to keep the public on-side for a decision he had already made."

In February 2003, Mr Blair secured a Commons vote in favour of the Iraq war, just before the start of hostilities. He won the vote with the Conservatives' support despite a rebellion by 121 Labour MPs.

Geoff Hoon, the Leader of the Commons - who was Defence Secretary during the Iraq war - will lead the Government's attack on the Short Bill. He is expected to argue that it would damage military morale if troops went into action against a background of political wrangling in Parliament.