ANTI-WAR campaigners will take their electoral battle to Tony Blair's doorstep by launching their campaign for European parliament in his constituency tomorrow.

Respect, the unity coalition, has chosen journalist and author Yvonne Ridley as its lead candidate in the North-East region of the European Parliamentary elections.

Its campaign will be unveiled outside Sedgefield's Dun Cow Inn, which recently hosted US President George Bush's visit.

Respect - which stands for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community and Trade unionism - has also chosen psychiatric nurse Yunus Bakhsh and mechanical engineer Dave Stewart as candidates in the North-East.

Ms Ridley, a former journalist with The Northern Echo, hit the headlines in 2001 when she was captured in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Since then she has been an active member of the anti-war movement in the UK.