How London's Labour MEPs voted on Iraq

11.56.45am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 8th Jun 2004

London's Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Sarah Ludford has condemned repeated assertions at public meetings by Labour representatives ahead of elections to the European Parliament on Thursday that the Labour party in London is 'anti-war'.

In a letter to the Guardian Sarah Ludford wrote:

"Let's be absolutely clear about the position of London Labour MEPs. When given the chance in a European Parliament vote last March to 'strongly deplore the unilateral decision by the war coalition' and condemn 'the absence of UN legitimacy', all three of them abstained or voted against.

They therefore contributed to the defeat of an anti-war resolution and, to compound the sin, Robert Evans then actually supported a Right-wing one which accepted the justification of the invasion while Claude Moraes and Mary Honeyball did not oppose it.

I'm afraid Labour representatives, even when they are trying to be all things to all voters, cannot wriggle out of their association with the Blair-Bush axis as easily as they would like."

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Read Sarah's letter in full.

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