Boost for Keys bid to unseat Blair
Press Association Monday April 18, 2005 12:53 PM
An anti-Iraq war protester's bid to unseat Tony Blair has been boosted by the defection of a senior local Labour figure and a rival candidate.
Dave Cattell, a member of Labour's Executive Committee in Mr Blair's Sedgefield constituency, is quitting the party to support independent candidate Reg Keys. He said the war raised questions about the "honesty and integrity" of the Prime Minister's leadership.
His decision follows an announcement by former MI5 officer David Shayler to pull out of the race to give Mr Keys a clear run at Mr Blair. Mr Shayler appealed to other parties to withdraw their candidates in a bid to depose Mr Blair in the way anti-sleaze candidate Martin Bell did Tory Neil Hamilton in Tatton in 1997.
Mr Keys, 52, whose soldier son died in the war, has accused Mr Blair of misleading Parliament over the reasons for the military action against Saddam Hussein. Lance Corporal Tom Keys, 20, was one of six Red Caps killed by an Iraqi mob as they manned a small police station in Al Majar Al Kabir on June 24 2003.
Mr Cattell, of Windlestone, Co Durham, will resign his Labour membership at Mr Keys' campaign HQ. He will say: "I have been a member of the Labour Party for 30 years and this decision has been very hard for me. But I have become increasingly concerned by a growing number of issues associated with Tony Blair's leadership - none more so than the decision to go to war with Iraq. "This decision has raised many questions regarding the honesty and integrity of his leadership. I have therefore decided to leave the Labour Party and sign Reg Keys' nomination papers, as Keys is the only candidate who can defeat Blair and is, indeed, well placed to do so."