Reg Keys confident of 'moral victory' and more over Blair

An independent candidate running for election against Tony Blair believes he can pull off one of the biggest shocks in political history by winning the Prime Minister's parliamentary seat.

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Reg Keys told Gulf News on Monday he was now mounting a serious challenge to the Labour leader and could even oust him from office.

Members of his campaign team also said they were increasingly optimistic that anger over the Iraq war was turning voters to their side.

"It's very encouraging. There are a lot of people out there disappointed with Tony Blair and we are cashing in. The bedrock of this Labour empire is beginning to crumble," he said.

Keys decided to run for parliament against Tony Blair after his son Tom was killed while fighting as a soldier in Iraq.

He launched the campaign as a protest against the war, but recently he has started to think the Prime Minister's seat in the House of Commons is genuinely vulnerable.

"Initially I thought maybe I could put a dent in his majority. For me that would be a moral victory. But I am now beginning to believe even more is achievable," the candidate said.

Tony Blair became Sedgefield's MP back in 1983 and at the last election he retained his seat by 17,713 votes.

However, fury over the war has turned many people against him and confidence is now high among supporters of Keys.

Martin Bell, a former independent MP helping with the campaign, told Gulf News the constituency is hanging in the balance.

"We have within our reach the possibility of the most amazing election result in a hundred years. And if we don't win outright, Tony Blair's majority will be undermined to such an extent that his days as Prime Minister will be numbered," he said.

Bell famously became an MP in 1997 after giving up his job as a BBC reporter to campaign against political sleaze.

The former journalist is no longer running for parliament himself, but he believes Keys can be victorious.

If Blair does lose his seat and Labour wins the national election, he will still have to quit as Prime Minister.

The likelihood of this happening may depend on whether supporters of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats join forces in Sedgefield to back the independent using tactical voting.

Bell said: "People are coming over to us in massive numbers. We have the perfect candidate. Reg Keys is not a politician, but he is the sort of man politicians should be and he is just winning people over day by day."