THE Stop the War Coalition elected Shelly D Asquith as its new chair at its first steering committee meeting since the 2021 AGM on Tuesday night.

Ms Asquith “has been a dedicated anti-war campaigner as part of Stop the War for many years and we’re very excited to have her at the forefront of our work,” the peace campaign said in a statement. She succeeds Murad Qureshi, who stepped down after five years.

The meeting discussed campaigning priorities including the dispatch of a new aircraft carrier strike group to the South China Seas in what national officer Chris Nineham called “a post-colonial fantasy, but a dangerous fantasy, because the Tories believe it and are pumping large amounts of money and munitions into it.”