For those of you familiar with my old blog, you will recognize the name Craig Murray. He’s the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan who got into some hot water for actually daring to criticize Uzbekistan’s brutal dictator, Islam Karimov.

The Bush administration, being hypocrites, told the Brits to shut him up. And they did. Then they eventually pensioned him off.

Now, Ambassador Murray, a true hero for freedom (unlike Bush), is going to run against British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

A former British ambassador to Uzbekistan has vowed to stand against Jack Straw, foreign secretary, in May’s likely general election after securing a redundancy pay-off from the Foreign Office.

Craig Murray, who claims he lost his post for publicly criticising the use of intelligence obtained under torture, on Tuesday accused the government of having “slavishly sold out any ethical principles for blind support of George Bush”. He would use some of his £315,000 early retirement package to contest Mr Straw’s seat as an independent candidate.

Mr Murray, 46, was suspended from his job in October after a year of tense relations with his head office on account of his outspoken views on human rights and his personal life. He claimed then he had become a “victim of conscience” after a memorandum, in which he alleged British intelligence had used information obtained under torture in Uzbekistan, was leaked to the Financial Times. The Foreign Office justified his removal on “operational grounds” and has denied suppressing discussion.

If Mr Murray carries out his threat to stand against Mr Straw in his Blackburn seat, he may be able to count on the votes of some in the town’s substantial Asian community that opposed the Iraq war. Intending to campaign under a banner of “Say No to George Bush”, he said he had been contacted by Muslim groups offering support and hoped to provide a focus for people who were unhappy with the war and the conduct of foreign policy. He was also considering legal action against the Foreign Office.

The First Division Association, the union representing senior civil servants, denied suggestions that the Foreign Office had sought to “buy off” Mr Murray with the severance deal. It added, though, that trust between the two had broken down and the last two years had put the former ambassador under enormous strain.

Mr Murray said he regarded the payment, part of a programme of cuts aimed at reducing staff numbers at the Foreign Office, “as a complete vindication”.

He added: “The FCO [Foreign Office] levelled a string of false allegations against me. They made it plain that anyone in the civil service who stood up for human rights in the context of the so-called war on terror would be shafted. But they could not make the lies against me stick, even internally.”

Indeed. Go, Craig, Go!