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Syria: Thousands will ‘beat the government’ over air strikes

THE thousands expected to march against war will overcome the government, according to leading anti-war campaigner Lindsey German.

In the wake of Wednesday’s Commons vote for air strikes on Syria, the Stop the War convener said campaigners would “beat the government over this.”

Her words were followed by protests, rallies and vigils all across Britain, from Falmouth to Inverness. She added that Labour MPs who voted for air strikes were “acting against the interests of their constituents, against the interests of Labour members, against the interests of everybody in the country that wants peace.”

To MPs, she said: “This war and its consequences will be on your conscience and you will not the be able to escape from the consequences of this war.”

In Leeds Stop the War campaigners marched to shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn’s surgery in protest at the MP’s passionate speech for war. The protests came after a rude email from Hyndburn MP Graham Jones to a Labour voter was leaked on the internet.

Mr Jones, who voted in favour of intervention in Syria, called gym worker Sam Grove’s anti-war plea a “load of bollocks.”

Mr Grove had sent a general email asking undecided Labour MPs to vote against a motion that would see the “death of tens maybe hundreds of people on their hands.”

He told the Star that Mr Jones’s reply left him “initially quite shocked. “It took me aback how aggressive it was.

“I couldn’t work out why he got so angry. I don’t have much faith in politicians, that they hold common people probably in very high regard.”

Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Neil Coyle, who voted in favour of air strikes, said he feared for his pregnant wife’s safety after a Twitter user added three knife symbols to his tweet. 

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