Reg Keys

Reginald Thomas Keys, better known as Reg Keys (born 1952), is the father of a British serviceman killed in the Iraq War. He stood in the 2005 General Election as an anti-war independent candidate for MP of Sedgefield, a constituency held by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Biography

Keys is a founder member of the campaign group Military Families Against the War. His son Lance Corporal Tom Keys, was a Royal Military Policeman and one of six Red Caps killed by an Iraqi mob in Majar al-Kabir in June 2003.

Reg Keys was an ambulance paramedic for 19 years in Solihull before retiring to Llanuwchllyn, Bala in North Wales. He declared at the outset of the campaign that he had been a Labour Party voter and was still basically socialist, but that he was seeking election as a candidate opposed to Blair's policy on the Iraq War. He claimed that by electing him, voters could keep the Labour Party in power but with Gordon Brown as the likely Prime Minister rather than Blair. Former Independent MP Martin Bell urged the other parties to withdraw their candidates as removing a supporter of the war from office would send a message to President Bush and other World Leaders who had supported him.

Bob Clay, the abrasive left-wing former Labour MP for Sunderland North, acted as Keys' agent. Keys won 4,252 votes (10.3% of the total), coming in fourth place, less than 700 votes behind the Liberal Democrat candidate and about 1700 votes behind the Conservative candidate. Blair won with 24,421 votes (58.9%).

At the declaration Keys made a widely-publicised speech about the controversy over the decision to go to war and the alleged deceptions made by Blair over the reasons for going to war. Blair listened to the speech with an expressionless face.

Although Keys did not defeat Blair at the ballot box, his campaign did not stop. The Labour government is now facing a series of legal challenges launched by the families of British soldiers killed in the Iraq war. Lawyers acting on behalf of ten families and anti-war organisations presented evidence to the International Criminal Court that Britain had committed war crimes in its participation in the Iraq war. They argued that British forces were directed in a manner disproportionate to the stated objective of the war, namely disarming Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. They further argued that there is, at the very least, a reasonable suspicion that the Prime Minister committed Britain to war on the basis of regime change. This charge is all the more serious in the light of the fact that Blair was given unambiguous advice from the Attorney General and the Foreign Office that to invade Iraq on the basis of regime change would be illegal.

Keys and other families of British soldiers killed in Iraq are also launching a separate legal action if the Prime Minister does not convene a full, public, and independent inquiry into the legality of the Iraq war. Using the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its British counterpart, the Human Rights Act, they will argue that, if it can be shown that soldiers were sent to war on an illegal basis, it would have been an infringement of their Article 2 right under the ECHR which imposes an obligation on governments to protect the lives of those under their authority and control.

Whether Keys will have more success in the law courts than he did at the ballot box remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that in a matter of months, Keys has become one of the most outspoken and recognisable opponents of the Governments policy in Iraq.

In August 2006, Reg Keys and other relatives of military personnel killed in Iraq announced the creation of a new political party named Spectre, which plans to contest more than 70 seats currently held by pro-war Labour MPs, including Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Ruth Kelly, the Communities and Local Government secretary and Jack Straw, Leader of the Commons. [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1837848,00.html (source)]

pectre

Spectre is a pressure group formed by the British anti-war campaigner. Mr Keys aims to stand candidates in all United Kingdom House of Commons by-elections and the Next United Kingdom general election, although it is not currently registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission.

Reg Keys stood against Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Sedgefield constituency at the United Kingdom general election, 2005.

The Spectre Party's aims and objectives include bringing the Government to account for misleading Parliament over Iraq, supporting wounded troops returning from Iraq, raising serving soldiers’ concerns over Iraq and highlight equipment and system failures.

Well-known supporters

*Felicity Arbuthnot
*Martin Bell
*Margaret Cook
*Brian Eno
*Hilary Wainwright
*Haifa Zangana
*Rory Bremner
*Benjamin Zephaniah

ee also

* UK general election, 2005

External links

* [http://regkeys.weblobe.net/ Vote for Reg Keys] official campaign site
* [http://sedgefield.blogdrive.com/ A Sedgefield View] A blogger in Sedgefield with a jaundiced eye
* [http://www.mfaw.org.uk/ Military Families Against the War] official site
* [http://www.backingblair.co.uk/reg_keys/reg_keys_speech_16x9.wmv Reg Keys' election night speech at Sedgefield] Video - WMV (3.6Mb)
* [http://www.looksmartmusic.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_1674_287/ai_n15954353/ The Man Who Challenged Blair] The Contemporary Review, July 2005, by Stefan Simanowitz.
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1466212,00.html Guardian - Doing It for Tom: Mr Keys Takes on the Prime Minister] by Ed Vulliamy April 22, 2005
* [http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/21/uk.blair.opponent/ CNN - Soldier father bid to unseat Blair] April 21, 2005
* [http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-04-21T132855Z_01_CAS148405_RTRUKOC_0_BRITAIN-ELECTION-SEDGEFIELD.xml Reuters - Father of Slain Soldier Plots Blair "Regime Change"] April 21, 2005
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1443253,00.html Guardian - "I'll Hold Blair to Account"] interview with Stuart Jeffries March 22, 2005