Blair defends role in peace process

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched an impassioned defence of the peace process during an attack on his political opposition in the British House of Commons.

Mr Blair criticised the Conservative Party for abandoning the usual consensus about the peace process.

He said that even when in opposition, the Labour Party always rowed in behind the Tories, even when they lied about holding secret talks with the IRA.

Mr Blair said it is a shame that Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith cannot support the current peace process.

"If he looks at the majority of places in Northern Ireland, at the absence of troop movements in two-thirds of Northern Ireland, at the fact that in Belfast, in the summer, people can sit out in the city centre in a way they never could before, if he looks at the number of people killed, if he looks at the general standard of life, the jobs and investment in Northern Ireland, I say to him, even with all the difficulties, that the peace process was worth it and I will continue it if I can," Mr Blair said.