Keighley MP Ann Cryer has pledged to continue opposing military action in Iraq.

But despite her differences with Tony Blair she insists she still supports him as Labour leader and Prime Minister.

She says that by opposing war she is expressing the "overwhelming" views of her constituents in Keighley.

Mrs Cryer (pictured) was last month among 122 Labour MPs who voted that the case for military action against Iraq was unproven. On three previous occasions over the past six months Mrs Cryer has voted against the Government on the Iraq issue. She said last month's House of Commons revolt demonstrated that democracy at grass roots level was alive and kicking.

She said that in common with other MPs, she had been inundated with letters and petitions from constituents opposed to war.

Mrs Cryer said: "I am sure this played a major part in ensuring such a large number of MPs decided to defy the Government whip.Why is the Prime Minister so determined to press ahead despite the opposition at home and in the House? I do not doubt the sincerity of Mr Blair's argument, but he is not the first Prime Minister to have put unquestioning loyalty behind a US administration."

Mrs Cryer said that by voting against war, she wanted to stop the United Nations being converted into a poodle of US foreign policy, and Iraq into a mass grave.

She added: "The US is now the world's only superpower. If it is allowed to operate unchecked, the US will impose or support regimes sympathetic to American interests.

"Saddam Hussein must be restrained, but so must a superpower able to unilaterally define what is and what is not a rogue state."

Mrs Cryer pointed out that the US had previously supported governments that were later deemed undesirable, including Hussein himself.

l Two veteran peace campaigners have been banned by a court from taking part in a mass protest against war on Iraq at an American "spy'' base in North Yorkshire.

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