Reaction to Julia Drown MP stepping down

12th May 2004

As secretary of Swindon Stop the War Coalition I wrote to Julia Drown on 30th April asking whether she had reconsidered her support for the war in Iraq. In the next general election we will be campaigning against any candidate who supports the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. We therefore wanted to check whether our current MPs still believe the war was justified, bearing in mind the failure to find WMD, the growing resistance, and the recent revelations about torture.

Ms Drown replied on 7th May saying she stands by her decision to vote for war against Iraq, and indeed she does not concede that the intelligence about Iraqi Weapons of mass Destruction was wrong. We therefore welcome her decision to stand down, and hope that Swindon South Labour Party will select a candidate who publicly opposed the war before it started, as many Labour MPs did.

Her reply dated 7th May clearly gave the impression she was firmly intending to contest the next general election, so I speculate that the evolving revelations of systematic abuse in the US run prisons has influenced her decision, particularly as Saddam Hussein's own human rights record was often cited by her as a justification for the war.

The Stop the War Coalition does not support any political party, but we would like to see Swindon represented by MPs who do not support every military adventure dreamt up by the Pentagon. I know that many members of Swindon Labour party share that view, now they have a chance to put forward an anti-war candidate to the voters.

Andy Newman
Secretary - Swindon Stop the War Coalition
PO Box 1177
Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 4XB

Related story from the Evening Advertiser: Julia Drown is to stand down as South Swindon MP: http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/archive...