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COVENTRY - Prime minister in waiting Gordon Brown was greeted by protesters demanding he pull troops out of Iraq today as he launched a campaign tour that has turned into a triumphal procession.
About 50 placard-waving demonstrators calling for British troops to come home from Iraq waited at the entrance of the University of Warwick campus for Brown's arrival at the first of 10 events the Labour Party is holding around Britain over the next month to help it pick a new leader and deputy leader.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and his deputy, John Prescott, are stepping down at the end of June after 10 years in office, their popularity sapped by Blair's decision to back the US invasion of Iraq.
Brown, the Chancellor who has had a troubled relationship with Blair, is already certain to be next prime minister because no other candidate secured enough support from Labour legislators for there to be a leadership contest.
Ordinary party members and trade unionists will not get a chance to vote on Brown, who is due to be proclaimed leader in Manchester on June 24 and become prime minister three days later.
Instead of a debate, Brown sat for an hour answering questions from party members, who gave him a standing ovation at the start and finish of the session. The six candidates for deputy leader took part in a separate question-and-answer session.
As Brown began speaking, a woman stood up in the back row shouting "Gordon Brown - get the troops out now!" before she was hauled out of the room by another member of the audience. Brown, unruffled, continued speaking throughout the incident.
A questioner from the audience later urged Brown to take decisive action on Iraq saying "this war has gone on too long".
Brown replied that the number of British troops in Iraq was falling and said he would visit Iraq to look at the situation on the ground.
Answering another question, Brown acknowledged Iraq had been a very divisive issue and said he took responsibility for decisions taken by the cabinet.
He said things were at a "new stage" now in Iraq and British forces had handed over security responsibility to Iraqis in three of the four provinces they were in.
Security measures should be combined with efforts to promote political reconciliation and economic development, he said.
Trevor Owen, a Labour Party official from Northampton, said Brown seemed to contrast with Blair, particularly on foreign policy.
"I think we may well see a more rapid removal of troops (from Iraq) than we would have seen before," he said.
- REUTERS
