The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq is hoping to become an MP.
Sue Smith is considering standing as an independent candidate in the Tamworth Borough Council elections in May and then battling for a seat in Parliament.
Her son, 21-year-old Private Phillip Hewett, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, was one of three soldiers blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq last July.
He died with Private Leon Spicer, aged 26, also from Tamworth, and their patrol commander, Second Lieutenant Richard Shearer, aged 26, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Mrs Smith, of Kettlebrook, Tamworth, says British troops should never have been sent to Iraq and handed in a petition at 10 Downing Street calling for them to be brought home.
She said that many people had approached her and suggested she should stand as an election candidate.
"There are a lot of issues I would like to take up and it is best to be in a position where people will listen," she said.
"I would sooner go for a General Election, but standing locally would be a stepping stone. It's really a learning curve because I wouldn't like to go into something not knowing what I was doing.
"I am taking this very seriously. We all want to put the world right, but I think losing Phillip has made me look at things in a different light."
She added she had been opposed to British involvement in the war from the start.
