Iraq Follow

Respect's George Galloway has defeated pro-war Labour MP Oona King to win the east London seat of Bethnal Green & Bow in the British general election, in a stunning victory for the left and the anti-war movement.

The issue of Iraq has moved to where it should be — at the centre of this election campaign.

The Iraq war was illegal, and Tony Blair knew it. That is the central charge of a leaked document about advice presented to the prime minister before the assault on Iraq began.

The US has appointed one of Saddam Hussein’s most feared generals as "a special security adviser" to the new Iraqi government. Wafiq al-Samarrai was head of General Military Intelligence during the uprisings in the Shia south and Kurdish north following the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

The general election campaign has only caught fire when the issue of Iraq has been raised. On the doorstep and on the streets, people are angry about being lied to, angry at Tony Blair’s arrogance and angry at the soaring cost of the war — both in terms of lives and money.

Despite the best efforts of the Labour and Tory leaderships to keep it off the agenda, the criminal war against Iraq, and the continuing occupation of the country, are critical election issues.

Your research on mortality in Iraq, published in the prestigious Lancet journal, made headlines across the globe last November. What motivated you to conduct the survey?

Remember Iraq? Well done if you do, because the government, aided valiantly by the mass media, is doing its best to persuade us to forget it.

Iraq and the BBC dominated the NUJ journalists’ union conference in Scarborough last weekend.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis staged a huge demonstration in Baghdad on Saturday, calling for an end to the occupation. Some estimates put the turnout at up to 300,000 — the biggest Iraqi protest since the invasion.

Challenging world poverty is the promise in Labour’s manifesto. "Put the Iraq war behind you and join us to help Africa," is their pitch. But Tony Blair’s ties to George Bush, his partner in crime in Iraq, destroy any hope of this.

"Ahmed will vote Respect on 5 May. His immediate complaint against the government was the war in Iraq. But his criticisms of the coalition are shorthand to describe a deeper resentment. George Galloway chose the name of his new political party with care."Roy Hattersley, former Labour deputy leader on the election campaign in his former constituency in Birmingham