On 17 February 1998, the veteran Labour MP Tony Benn delivered a speech in the House of Commons in which he made a passionate moral case against proposed military action in Iraq. The debate was called to consider whether the UK should carry out a bombing campaign against Iraq in conjunction with the United States – a move the government supported.

At the time of the debate, Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein was refusing to provide full access to United Nations inspectors, who had been mandated in 1991 (by United Nations Security Council Resolution 687) to oversee Iraq’s compliance with the destruction of Iraqi chemical, biological and missile weapons facilities.

The foreign secretary, Robin Cook, opened the debate. The government motion condemned the “continuing refusal of Iraq to comply with its obligations under the relevant post-ceasefire UN Security Council Resolutions” by allowing the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to carry out without restrictions the required inspections of its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.

It also expressed support for the government to “use all necessary means to achieve an outcome consistent with these resolutions.”

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Cook insisted that the government was keeping “the door to peace as wide open as possible for as long as is reasonable” and stressed UNSCOM’s role in preventing Saddam from “acquiring weapons that could wipe out whole cities.”

The foreign secretary stated that it was vital that “we win this confrontation” because of the danger posed by “Saddam’s arsenals of terror” and because the “authority of the UN itself is at stake.”

Cook told MPs: “The task of UNSCOM is to find and destroy Saddam’s chemical and biological weapons. If we cannot get agreement that enables UNSCOM to do that task effectively on the ground, we are ready to do it by air power.”

John Major, the former prime minister, also contributed to the debate, expressing his support for the government’s position. He argued that “if diplomacy were to fail, doing nothing would be no acceptable option.”

The Conservative MP stated that the current objective was “to prevent something that might happen if we did not do so: to prevent the danger of a dictator continuing to develop chemical and biological weapons and the means to use them, perhaps over a wide region.”

He concluded: “Suppose that we were to do nothing. Suppose that we decided to take no action because it was too difficult or too uncomfortable, or it might go wrong… and two years from now Saddam Hussein had a delivery system for chemical and biological weapons and used it.

“What would the House say to itself and what would history say if we knew that we had the opportunity to take action now and we chose not to?”

Benn, a former cabinet minister who was first elected to parliament in 1950, rose to speak in opposition to the government motion.

The veteran Labour MP began by reflecting on a “unique debate”. He said he could not remember an occasion when the “government asked the House to authorise, in a resolution, action which could lead to force.”

In his address, Benn argued that every MP who voted in favour of the government’s motion would be accepting personal responsibility for the deaths of innocent civilians.

In the speech’s most famous passage, he told the House that he lived in Millbank tower during the Blitz. “I saw Dockland burning – 500 people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine”, he said. “It was terrifying.”

He added: “Aren’t Arabs terrified? Aren’t Iraqis terrified? Don’t Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Doesn’t bombing strengthen their determination?

“What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is a computer game for our children and just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.”

Benn, with future Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sat over his right shoulder, warned his colleagues that every MP who voted “for the government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting the responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins as I fear it will.”

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Benn concluded by referencing the United Nations charter and its determination to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.

The Labour MP declared: “That was that generation’s pledge to this generation, and it would be the greatest betrayal of all if we voted to abandon the charter, take unilateral action and pretend that we were doing so in the name of the international community.”

The government motion was agreed by 493 votes to 25.

Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Ken Livingstone, John McDonnell, Dennis Canavan, Dennis Skinner and George Galloway were among the Labour MPs to vote to reject the motion. Benn and Tam Dalyell were the tellers for the noes.

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Operation Desert Fox, the US-led bombing campaign intended to degrade Iraq’s ability to manufacture and use weapons of mass destruction, began later that year. The four-day bombing campaign lasted from 16 to 19 December 1998.

The government called an emergency debate on 17 December. The commons also heard Tony Blair deliver a statement as prime minister. Blair denied that it was a “specific objective” to remove Saddam, maintaining that such action would require the deployment of ground troops on a massive scale.

Blair also refuted the suggestion that the timing of the air strikes was “somehow linked to the internal affairs of the United States”. At the time, US president Bill Clinton was facing impeachment proceedings after he denied that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

During the debate, Labour MPs expressed outrage that parliament was not given the right to vote on military action. George Galloway argued that Britain was “diminished and degraded” by the attacks.

In the end, the debate, which was held on an adjournment motion, passed without a vote. Towards the end of the debate, Benn moved that the “question be now put” but a division (formal vote) did not occur as there were no MPs willing to act as “tellers” for the government position, which was supported by the opposition Conservative Party.

Galloway accused the government of “procedural trickery” to prevent the minority opposition expressing its view on the parliamentary record.

He stated: “The country is at war and, as a result of a procedural trick, the minority opposition to that war is being cheated of the opportunity to record its vote. What kind of government – what kind of war effort – require parliamentary democracy to be abused and mocked in such a circumstance?

Dalyell, Benn and Canavan delivered dozens of points of order over the issue as the deputy speaker attempted to move to the next item of business.

In a final attempt to force a vote, Harry Cohen and Galloway declared: “I spy strangers.” This traditional request for members of the public to leave the commons galleries could force a vote for the House to sit in private. The speaker dismissed the protest, effectively ending the rebellion.

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In January 1999, Dalyell introduced a bill to the House under the 10-minute rule which would require a simple majority vote in the commons to authorise any future strikes or military action.

The bill’s long title stated its objective to “require the prior approval, by a simple majority of the House of Commons, of military action by United Kingdom forces against Iraq”.

Addressing the commons, Dalyell said that if Blair understood the “high-tech savagery” of recent bombing “he would never have allowed himself to step out of 10 Downing street in front of a Christmas tree to announce military strikes”.

He condemned the fact that even members of cabinet had not been consulted in the lead up to the December bombing campaign. “Britain is, after all, supposedly a parliamentary democracy, not a presidential state”, Dalyell declared.

The Labour MP stated that the real object of the bill was to try and “bring home to each MP, by vote… exactly what he or she is supporting, and the moral dilemmas… that they face”.

In this way, Dalyell said there was a “simple proposition” behind the bill.

He told the House: “In circumstances in which Britain is embarking on a protracted military operation with no clear end in sight, parliament must be formally consulted and a decision must be made by majority vote, before our country drifts into a conflict whose consequences and objectives are far from clear.”

Dalyell argued that before getting deeper and deeper into a “Vietnam-like conflict with Iraq, the pros and cons should have been hammered out on the anvil of parliamentary argument.”

He added: “In the case of Iraq – although it is arguable what the House agreed to in February 1998 – that has not happened, at any rate not recently.”

The Military Action Against Iraq (Parliamentary Approval) Bill’s sponsors included Benn and Corbyn. But the proposed legislation did not progress to second reading because it did not receive “queen’s consent”.

This is a long-established convention, distinct from royal assent, where the government must seek the monarch’s permission for parliament to debate any bill that affects the royal prerogative or the private property and interests of the crown. The bill required queen’s consent because it sought to alter the royal prerogative power relating to the decision to deploy military force.

The queen, acting on ministerial advice, did not give her consent.

Speaking before the bill’s rejection, Dalyell said: “I am not going crawling to the queen. This has nothing to do with her.”

In April 1999, Dalyell raised the rejection of his bill on a point of order. He questioned whether it was right that queen’s consent was used to block a bill regarding the rights of parliament.

The deputy speaker on duty responded: “As Erskine May on page 605 makes plain, without queen’s consent, I cannot propose the question on the second reading.”

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Benn stepped down from parliament at the 2001 general election. He served as president of the Stop the War Coalition following its founding on 21 September 2001.

The former Labour MP addressed the famous February 2003 march against the prospect of a war with Iraq.

The House of Commons voted in favour of authorising military action the following month, and the invasion of Iraq began on 20 March 2003 – just 33 days after the Stop the War Coalition demonstration.

Today, Benn’s speech on 17 February 1998 is remembered as a classic piece of anti-war oratory and is frequently cited during debates on military interventions.

Benn died on 14 March 2014, aged 88.