...The veteran left-wing MP Harry Barnes, who helped launch LATW, has resigned from the group because "Labour Against the War hasn't adopted a creditable analysis of the changed position and adopts an approach which aids terrorist, religious extremist and anti-democratic forces in the Middle East."

The North East Derbyshire MP opposed the war in every Commons vote but says that the group, which includes Commons warhorses such as Alice Mahon MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP and Alan Simpson MP, has failed to understand the new realities of Iraq: "Unfortunately, the invasion took place but this led to a situation where the options facing the Iraqi people changed."...

...The MP has also issued a blistering attack on the Lancet figures of the numbers of civilians killed in Iraq.

He said: "I don't follow Stalin's dictum that 'A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.' Every death of a human being is an immeasurable loss to all humanity. But we must tell the truth about Iraqi deaths. The Lancet figure of 100,000 civilian deaths is so often used by some anti-war figures that it is commonly but wrongly accepted as a fact. The Lancet figure is wide of the mark. It's bad enough that, say, 20,000 people have died but the use of exaggerated figures shows that some anti-war leaders are more concerned to win points, regardless of truth, than to make an intellectually rigorous assessment."

The MP also slams the anti-war movement over "their attempts to rubbish the elections."

"One can have been strongly opposed to the war and yet recognise that Iraqis have shown that they wish to take back their country from both the "resistance" and foreign troops. Both motivations were present. And who can blame the Iraqis for wanting democracy free from foreign interference, after so many decades of one of the most awful regimes on earth."...

...Mr Barnes has helped form a new group, Labour Friends of Iraq with Ann Clwyd, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to Iraq on Human Rights to unite those who took different positions on the war.

Mr Barnes said: "None of us who opposed the war likes how we got here but we must face the facts if we are to provide solidarity to Iraqi democrats in their hour of utmost need. My plain message to those on the left who abuse statistics and rubbish Iraqi democracy because they cannot stand the idea that Tony Blair or George Bush get some sort of credibility from them is to get real and do so quickly."