I dedicate this campaign to my son Tom, who was killed in Iraq four days short of his 21st birthday. He was sent to war under very controversial circumstances.

If this war was justified then I would not be here today. If the war had been just I would have been grieving and not campaigning. If weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, then I would not have come to Sedgefield, to the Prime Minister’s stronghold, to challenge him on its legality.

I don’t pretend to be a politician, and it has not been easy for me, but it has been a very rewarding campaign, and I think it is remarkable that an amateur like me has come from a standing start in one of the most traditional and safe Labour seats of all to achieve a share of the vote which is not so far short of that of an established political party.

For this I thank the team which built spontaneously around me, my wife Sally and my other son Richard who have stood behind me, and above all I thank the voters of Sedgefield who put their trust in me.

I hope in my heart that one day the Prime Minister will be able to say sorry to the families bereaved by this war, and that one day he will find himself able to visit in hospital the soldiers who have been wounded by it.

So, as well as to Tom, I would like to dedicate my campaign to all the British servicemen - and I am aware that some people do not know how many it is who have been killed - to all 88 British servicemen who have been killed and given their young lives in this conflict.

And especially to those Royal Military Policemen who have become known as The Six, who were abandoned and slaughtered in a filthy police station in Al Majar Al-Kabir.

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Posted today at http://www.keysforsedgefield.org.uk/

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