A PETITION calling for MPs to hold Tony Blair to account for misleading the public in the run-up to the Iraq war reached a significant milestone yesterday.

The online parliamentary petition now has over 10,000 signatories, which means the government will have to make an official reply.

Stop the War vice-chair Chris Nineham told the Star that it was “no surprise” that people had already signed in such numbers.

Mr Nineham said: “The act of lying to take us into the Iraq war, more than any, other embodies the contempt for democracy that plagues our politics.”

He said it was “essential” that Mr Blair “faces some accounting as a warning to politicians in the future not to take us into disastrous foreign wars and not to deceive the public and Parliament alike.”

Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member Adam Price, who instigated the petition, said he was pleased with its progress and hoped it would gain the 100,000 signatures needed to force a Commons debate on the issue.

Mr Price said: “Blair is guilty of a litany of errors and failures” and “must face his day of reckoning if justice is to be served to all of those who suffered at his hands.”

He said he had been working with MPs across all parties who are “all eager to ensure that everything possible is done to hold Tony Blair to account for misleading the House of Commons and the public.”

SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh welcomed the news and pledged to “continue to work with MPs from across the House of Commons who want to see Parliament act to address this serious issue.

She said: “If we are to retain the public’s confidence in Parliament, we must hold Tony Blair to account for the misleading statements he made in the run up to the war in Iraq.”

The petition can be found at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/159996.