Reg Keys
Encyclopedia
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
.
. His son Lance Corporal Tom Keys, was a Royal Military Police
man and one of six Red Caps
killed by an Iraq
i 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 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 British 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.
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
. (source)
House of Commons
by-elections and the 2010 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.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
serviceman killed in the Iraq War. He stood in the 2005 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
as an anti-war independent candidate for MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of Sedgefield
Sedgefield (UK Parliament constituency)
Sedgefield is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
, a constituency held by the then Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
.
Biography
Keys is a founder member of the campaign group Military Families Against the WarMilitary Families Against the War
Military Families Against the War is an organisation of families of servicemen in the United Kingdom created to campaign for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.The group's mission statement sets out their objectives as follows:...
. His son Lance Corporal Tom Keys, was a Royal Military Police
Royal Military Police
The Royal Military Police is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK, and whilst service personnel are deployed overseas on operations and exercises.Members of the RMP are generally known as...
man and one of six Red Caps
Redcap
A Red Cap or Redcap, also known as a powrie or dunter, is a type of malevolent murderous dwarf, goblin, elf or fairy found in Border Folklore. They are said to inhabit ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland...
killed by an Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i mob in Majar al-Kabir in June 2003.
Reg Keys was an ambulance paramedic for 19 years in Solihull
Solihull
Solihull is a town in the West Midlands of England with a population of 94,753. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is located 9 miles southeast of Birmingham city centre...
before retiring to Llanuwchllyn
Llanuwchllyn
Llanuwchllyn is a village in Gwynedd, Wales, near the southern end of Bala Lake . Its population according to the United Kingdom Census 2001 was 834., of which approximately 81% were Welsh-speaking....
, Bala
Bala, Gwynedd
Bala is a market town and community in Gwynedd, Wales, and formerly an urban district of the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake , 17 miles north-east of Dolgellau, with a population of 1,980...
in North Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. He declared at the outset of the campaign that he had been a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
voter and was still basically socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, 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
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
as the likely Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
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
Bob Clay
Robert Alan Clay , known as Bob Clay, is a left-wing politician, formerly Labour MP, in the United Kingdom.Robert Clay was educated at Bedford School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Unusually for a man of his background, Clay went on to become a bus driver, working for Tyne and Wear PTE...
, the 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
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
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 British 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.
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
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...
, Ruth Kelly
Ruth Kelly
Ruth Maria Kelly is a British Labour Party politician of Irish descent who was the Member of Parliament for Bolton West from 1997 until she stood down in 2010...
, the Communities and Local Government secretary and Jack Straw
Jack Straw (politician)
John Whitaker Straw is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Blackburn since 1979. He served as Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001, Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006 and Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons from 2006 to 2007 under Tony Blair...
, Leader of the Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. (source)
Spectre
Spectre is a pressure group formed by the British anti-war campaigner. Mr Keys aims to stand candidates in all United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
by-elections and the 2010 general election, although it is not currently registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission.
Reg Keys stood against Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
at the Sedgefield
Sedgefield (UK Parliament constituency)
Sedgefield is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
constituency at the United Kingdom general election, 2005
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
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 BellMartin BellMartin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
- Margaret Cook
- Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
- Hilary WainwrightHilary WainwrightHilary Wainwright is a British socialist and feminist, best known for being editor of Red Pepper magazine.-Personal life:Hilary Wainwright's father was the Liberal MP Richard Wainwright, and her brother, Martin, is the Northern Editor of The Guardian, to which she occasionally contributes.She...
- David ShaylerDavid ShaylerDavid Shayler is a British journalist and former MI5 officer. Shayler earned notoriety after being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act 1989 for his passing secret documents to the Mail on Sunday in August 1997 that alleged that MI5 was paranoid about socialists, and that it had previously...
- Haifa ZanganaHaifa ZanganaHaifa Zangana is an Iraqi novelist, author, artist, and political activist. She is most notably known for writing Women on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London. Haifa grew up in Baghdad and graduated from Baghdad University and the School of pharmacy in 1974...
- Rory BremnerRory BremnerRoderick "Rory" Keith Ogilvy Bremner, FKC is a Scottish impressionist, playwright and comedian, noted for his work in political satire...
- Benjamin ZephaniahBenjamin ZephaniahBenjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah is an English writer and dub poet. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008....
External links
- Vote for Reg Keys official campaign site
- A Sedgefield View A blogger in Sedgefield with a jaundiced eye
- Military Families Against the War official site
- Reg Keys' election night speech at Sedgefield Video - WMV (3.6Mb)
- The Man Who Challenged Blair The Contemporary Review, July 2005, by Stefan Simanowitz.
- Guardian - Doing It for Tom: Mr Keys Takes on the Prime Minister by Ed VulliamyEd VulliamyEd Vulliamy is a British journalist and writer. His mother is the children's author and illustrator Shirley Hughes and his grandfather the Liverpool store owner Thomas Hughes. He was educated at the independent University College School and at Hertford College, Oxford before becoming a journalist...
April 22, 2005 - CNN - Soldier father bid to unseat Blair April 21, 2005
- Reuters - Father of Slain Soldier Plots Blair "Regime Change" April 21, 2005
- Guardian - "I'll Hold Blair to Account" interview with Stuart Jeffries March 22, 2005