Former MP turns his back on 'Blair's doomed Labour'

Bob Clay, who used to represent Sunderland North, has turned his back on Labour to support the anti-war party Respect in this month's European elections.

Mr Clay publicly endorsed the Respect Party at an election campaign meeting in Darlington.

Yesterday, he told The Northern Echo he was opposing Labour because he felt the Prime Minister had failed to respond to public protest over war in Iraq, which had included mass demonstrations in his own constituency, Sedgefield, County Durham.

Mr Clay said: "I decided to vote for Respect in the European elections because I was so disgusted with a number of matters to do with the Labour party, in particular the war."

He cited "the lies, refusal to admit to lies, the illegalities, the way the UN was treated and what seems to be the inability of a large number of Labour MPs to understand just how widespread the disgust is".

He said: "It seemed to me obvious from the start that Mr Blair was grovelling to an American president.

"It seems the Labour Party is beyond hope with its present leader."

Journalist Yvonne Ridley, who is heading the regional campaign for Respect, said: "We are getting support from the most unexpected quarters and I was delighted when Bob Clay endorsed Respect and he said he would actually campaign for us. That is a hammer blow to New Labour."

Mr Clay first joined Labour as a teenager before quitting to follow the revolutionary Trotskyist group, the International Socialists.

In the early 1980s, as a union shop steward, he returned to the Labour Party fold and became MP for Sunderland North in 1983 - a role he retained for a decade before stepping down to pursue career interests.

During his time as an MP he publicly expressed his socialist views, supporting the National Union of Miners in the 1984 to 1985 miners' strike and in 1990 when he became the region's first MP to be taken to court for refusing to pay the poll tax.