Foreign secretary leads the tributes to Cook

JACK STRAW today led tributes to his friend and predecessor as Foreign Secretary Robin Cook at the Labour Party conference.

The invasion of Iraq was the reason that the late Livingston MP quit his Cabinet job as Commons leader on the eve of the war.

Mr Straw said: "Robin and I disagreed about Iraq. But our friendship survived. At the General Election he showed the strength of that friendship, and his commitment to the party, by going out of his way to campaign for me in my constituency. He made a big difference to the final result. My debt to him is immense."

In the House magazine, published to coincide with the conference, senior Labour politicians queued up to pay tribute to Mr Cook, at the first such gathering since his sudden death.