London, Sept. 15 (Reuters): Support is growing among British politicians for a bid to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq war, which would embarrass the Prime Minister but not remove him from office, lawmakers said today.

Welsh and Scottish nationalists last month launched a campaign to hold a parliamentary debate calling for Blair to be impeached for lying about Iraqi weapons to justify war. A motion accusing Blair of ?high crimes and misdemeanours? has no chance of being voted through due to Blair?s majority of over 150 in the 659-seat House of Commons, but the debate would once again draw attention to an issue that has dogged Blair since the war last year.

Some 21 lawmakers, mostly from Opposition parties, have declared support for an impeachment debate, but so far only one representative of Blair?s Labour party has put his name down. ?People across the UK and in parliament feel let down by the Prime Minister who misled the House of Commons and took this country to war based on a lie,? said Elfyn Llwyd, of Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru. ?That is a serious charge and the contempt this government has shown for parliament must not go unchallenged.

?Realistically, I think we need about 30 names to get a debate, but if we have a broad swathe of support from across the house I think it will go ahead,? Llwyd said.

?I think we will get well beyond that,? he added. The campaigners acknowledge they need more support from disaffected Labour parliamentarians.