Galloway: Attacks will not be last

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Anti-Iraq war campaigners were gathering to give their response to the terrorist outrages in London the morning after a bitter Commons row engulfed the cause's most outspoken politician. George Galloway was accused by a senior minister of "dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood" after the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow warned that the attacks in the capital will not be the last.

The outspoken former Labour MP swiftly hit back at his accuser, armed forces minister Adam Ingram, likening him to a "foul-mouthed ... thug". Deputy Speaker Sylvia Heal had to intervene, reminding the House that "good temper and moderation" were the hallmarks of language in the Commons. Mr Galloway was due to be joined this morning by veteran peace campaigner Tony Benn, as well as CND chairwoman Kate Hudson, for a Stop the War Coalition press conference in central London. It follows a statement from the organisation on Thursday which condemned the terrorist attacks but also urged people not to stir up any anti-Muslim "hysteria".

A spokesman said: "It is clear that the war on terror, in which Britain has been so heavily involved, has not made the world safer from terrorism. Britain's security services warned Tony Blair two years ago that a war in Iraq would make such attacks more likely. That warning has been tragically borne out." Before his Commons spat with Mr Ingram, Mr Galloway said in his own statement that Londoners had "paid the price" for Mr Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He called on the Prime Minister to remove people in the UK from "harm's way" by withdrawing British troops from Iraq. In his later clash with the armed forces minister, Mr Galloway accused MPs of living in a "consensual bubble" of denial and said unless action was taken, there would be repeats of Thursday's atrocity in the capital. "There was nothing unpredictable about this attack this morning. Despicable, yes, but not unpredictable. Entirely predictable and, I predict, not the last either," he said.

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