Birmingham terror suspect Moazzam Begg is set to embarrass Foreign Secretary Jack Straw - by standing against him at the General Election. The revelation comes after it emerged that Begg, from Sparkbrook, will be a parliamentary candidate for the newly-formed Peace and Progress Party. Launched by actors Vanessa and Corin Redgrave last November, the party accuses Tony Blair and his government of trampling on human rights. Moazzam is expected to return to Britain on Tuesday after being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay for three years. The 36 year-old father-of-three claims he was tortured after it was reported that he had admitted a plot to bomb the Houses of Parliament with remote-controlled planes full of anthrax. His supporters say that Moazzam confessed only in a bid to end the illtreatment he was suffering. Last week his father, retired bank worker Azmat Begg, revealed that his son had already been sounded out about standing as an MP by a lawyer who visited him in prison last year. Mr Begg, who sits on the Peace and Progress Party steering committee, said: It was originally thought that Moazzam and another British captive, Richard Belmar, would be absentee candidates and he agreed. Now he is being released, we have had to re-think our strategy and decide where he might stand. Nowhere has been ruled in or out, but we will want to cause maximum embarrassment to this government. He added: If Moazzam feels he does not want to stand, then I will. People need to know that this government did not do enough to help him. The Peace and Progress Party is expected to challenge only a handful of seats at the next election and is remaining tight-lipped about possible targets. But a party insider told the Sunday Mercury that Moazzam is being lined up to challenge Jack Straws Blackburn seat. It would be such a poke in the eye for the Government if Moazzam stood against the very man who dragged his heels over securing his release, he said. The party believes that Moazzam has a very good chance of doing well in Blackburn, not least because of its sizeable Muslim population. All this depends on Moazzams own wishes and whether he is physically and mentally up to it, but all the signs at the moment are that he will be. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has held the staunch Labour Blackburn seat for 25 years. But at the last election in 2001 his majority was slashed from 14,500 to just 9,000. A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission, which supervises voting, said there was no bar to Moazzam standing as an MP, even if he was charged by UK police on his return to Britain. Candidates are only barred from standing as an MP if they have been convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than a year in jail. Last night it also emerged that Muslim leaders are to meet Home Office minister Hazel Blears to discuss the imminent return of Moazzam and three other British detainees. Delegates will lobby for the four men to be given medical attention upon arrival in Britain, the Muslim Council of Britain said. Council spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said: Our concern is that when they arrive, these four Britons receive medical attention and care because they have been very heavily trauma-tised and possibly tortured as well. Mr Bunglawala said that British police would decide whether the men still had questions to answer, adding: They have already been questioned extensively at Guantanamo. | 
