IT IS the first time Audrey White has taken centre stage as a anti-war protester - but the housewife brought Labour's North West conference to a standstill as she heckled Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

The articulate 52-year-old, who helps her businessman husband run a property company from their luxury home in Hightown, near Formby, sparked a major security alert within minutes of the minister taking the podium at the Southport event.

Well-dressed Mrs White, a mother-of-one, slipped past police and stewards by wearing a rainbow coloured tape around her neck to simulate a name badge and clutching an A4 folder across her chest.

The resort's Floral Hall had been placed on "maximum security" alert for the high profile event, where other speakers included deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and John Reid, chairman of the Labour Party.

Mrs White was able to get a fourth row seat, from which she stood up to point and shout at Mr Straw for a full five-minutes before she was forcibly removed by police officers. The Foreign Secretary repeatedly urged Mrs White to sit down before delegates turned on her with a chant of "Out, out, out..."

I had special permission to be in the auditorium but was also ejected following the outburst, as was a photographer from a local website. He was forced to erase pictures from his digital camera.

Mrs White was one of around 200 anti-war protesters who gathered outside the event to lobby delegates and speakers on Saturday morning. She told the Daily Post: "I can't believe how easy it was to get through what was supposedly their maximum security. I've never done anything like this before, but I will go to any lengths to stop this war.

"I felt I had to do it because there is a real sense of urgency about this, thousands of people are going to die and Britain is going to become a target for more terrorist attacks because people will hate us.

"This war is not about self defence, it is about oil, and there is no justification for it."

Mrs White, who recently became treasurer for the Merseyside Stop the War Coalition, is an ex-Labour party member and former Women's Committee member of the national TGWU.

She added: "I was a bit nervous and I didn't really have anything planned, I thought I'd only have a couple of seconds before they got me out of there, but I was able to go on for ages - although I was quite shocked at how the delegates turned on me.

"I think Jack Straw was arrogant because he is determined to ignore public opinion"

As she was led away, Mr Straw told the conference: "This is a debate that has aroused strong passions and I don't blame people for feeling strongly about it."

* LIVERPOOL Labour Party was awarded with the conference's annual "campaigning" award, for its success in changing perceptions of the party locally since the 1980s...SUPL: