TONY Blair and George Bush should stand trial for war crimes at the international court in The Hague, a Nottingham MP has told Parliament.

In a speech to the House of Commons last night Nottingham South MP Alan Simpson accused the two former world leaders of concocting a "false" case for the Iraq War.

Mr Simpson suggested that both leaders knew there was little evidence Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

He then brandished leaked minutes of a meeting between Mr Blair and the cabinet, including then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, which he claimed showed "regime change" – illegal under international law – was the true reason for war.

The MP also read leaked minutes of a meeting at which Mr Bush suggested painting US planes with United Nations colours and flying them over Iraq to see if they got shot down – with the goal of gaining an excuse for war.

Mr Simpson told MPs: "All these are illegal acts. Had we evidence that Saddam Hussein had been doing the same, that would have been justification for him to be tried as a war criminal.

He added: "I have always argued that it is The Hague in the Netherlands that should be the basis of where this is tried. My belief is that those who have perpetrated war crimes and act as war criminals should be tried at the international criminal court."

Yesterday's debate was scheduled to discuss a pending inquiry into the Iraq War. But Mr Simpson claims the inquiry will mean nothing unless it is allowed to apportion blame for any breaches of law – something it does not have a remit to do.

He told the Post after the debate: "The build up to the war is so crucially important that the inquiry should have the power to make recommendations and apportion blame – that's what the public want."

The Iraq War began on March 20 2003 after a US-British led coalition accused Saddam Hussein of amassing WMDs.

Before fighting began Attorney General Lord Goldsmith informed Mr Blair that "regime change" was illegal in the eyes of international law and stressed it could not be "the objective of military action".

United Nations weapons inspectors found no evidence of WMDs prior to the war.

The Government blamed poor intelligence which misled them to believe WMDs existed, but Mr Simpson maintains the Government only ever wanted "regime change" and that the minutes he brandished last night proved it.

They recorded a meeting, held a full year before the war, attended by Mr Blair, Mr Hoon, then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Lord Goldsmith and former intelligence chief John Scarlett.

At the meeting Mr Straw stated the case for war was "thin" and that Iraq's WMD capability was less than that of Libya's and Iran's.

They also show Mr Hoon – unavailable for comment yesterday – informing Mr Blair that the US military already had January 2003 in mind as a start date for an invasion.

Mr Scarlett noted that in America the "facts were being fixed around the policy" of military action, meanwhile Mr Blair stated that if the "political context were right, people would support regime change".

Mr Simpson said: "The meeting clearly shows they were looking for a pretext for a war. They weren't interested in WMDs. They wanted regime change and they were looking for a way to legally justify an illegal conflict."