Soldier mother tells of PM offer

Rose Gentle told the conference about the letter from Gordon Brown

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered to meet the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, she has told a conference.

Rose Gentle's fusilier son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq three years ago.

A coroner this week found he might have survived the attack had his vehicle been fitted with vital equipment.

At the Solidarity party conference in Glasgow, Mrs Gentle called Mr Brown "a coward" after he offered to meet her "next time he was in Glasgow".

She told the conference: "Gordon Brown has now sent a letter to my mum, it was sent out on the 29th, saying that he will meet with me the next time he's in Glasgow.

"I could go to London tomorrow to meet Gordon Brown but he's too much of a bloody coward.

"The next time he's in Glasgow I might not even be here."

But if I hadn't fought and dug - and dug - I would have never known about the equipment that Gordon needed Rose Gentle

She offered to go to London on Monday to meet the prime minister if he was "willing".

But she added: "I can't see him doing it."

Ms Gentle was among the guest speakers at the opening day of the former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity party conference.

On Wednesday deputy assistant coroner Selena Lynch said Fusilier Gentle might have survived the attack on June 28, 2004 had his vehicle been fitted with vital bomb-disabling equipment.

But the order to collect the kit was never passed on to his unit.

Ms Lynch said a system which "appeared chaotic and lacking in clarity" meant that Fusilier Gentle's regiment, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (RHF), did not pick up the hi-tech kit until after he died.

Judicial review

Mrs Gentle told the conference: "It's disgusting the way our boys are getting treated.

"But if I hadn't fought and dug - and dug - I would have never known about the equipment that Gordon needed."

She claimed her campaign had won support from serving soldiers.

"There's boys that are in the army, the RHF or whatever, that are actually applauding us for what we are doing, because they still say 'we've not got what we need,' she said.

"We need to keep fighting."

Ms Gentle added that the case for a judicial review into the war will come before the House of Lords in February next year, but regardless of the outcome she will continue to campaign.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar who is facing contempt of court charges following the sentencing of his client, Mohammed Atif Siddique, for terrorism offences, also spoke at the conference about UK terror laws.