A CONTROVERSIAL Swindon peer has accused Tony Blair of running a fascist dictatorship as he launched a bid for Parliament to formally discipline the Prime Minister.

Lord Stoddart, who was Labour MP for Swindon from 1970 to 1983, compared the Government's policy of house arrest with methods used in 1930s Germany and Italy and during the apartheid era in South Africa.

Now, the 79-year-old peer has filed a motion calling for the House of Lords to censure the Prime Minister for making the case for war in Iraq on "the basis of doubtful intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction."

The motion also condemns the Prime Minister's subsequent conduct of policy in connection with the war.

Lord Stoddart told the Adver-tiser: "I believe that the action that Bush and the British government undertook was unnecessary and without the backing of the United Nations was illegal.

"I wanted to apply to impeach or indict Blair but the House of Lords is the ultimate judicial authority which would decide whether to impeach, so I therefore have written a motion calling for him to be censured.

"Since the war it has been quite intolerable that people can be put under house arrest without first of all knowing what they are going to be charged with or given the opportunity to answer those charges.

"If that is the democracy we are living in then it is a fascist dictatorship.

"That is what happened in Germany or Italy or South Africa. These are the kind of laws we opposed at the time."

The censure motion is currently 20th on a list of debates waiting to be heard in the House of Lords.

Peers could debate the motion for up to 90 minutes, if there is enough time during this parliamentary session.

However, the looming prospect of a general election could result in Lord Stoddart's bid running out of time.

The Peer's move follows a motion by Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price in the House of Commons to impeach Tony Blair for gross misconduct over war.

More than 20 MPs have signed the motion the first attempted impeachment of a minister since 1848 although its backers are not expected to succeed in getting it debated in the Commons.