Taxi drivers’ solidarity with executed hostage

Head of Kirklees Taxi and Hackney Carriage Association Akooji Badat said more than 100 drivers gathered outside the Snowdon Street Mosque in Batley to pray for Salford taxi driver Mr Henning, who was captured while taking an aid convoy to Syria.

Mr Badat said: “We remembered him in our prayers, we condemn his killing and it is not in the name of Islam.

“Beheading people is not a part of Islam and we hope those barbaric people are brought to justice and that Mr Cameron sticks to his word.

“Mr Henning did all the right things. I could not sleep for days after it happened.”

Mr Henning was the second British hostage to be executed by the group that calls itself Islamic State (also known as Isis or Isil), which has taken over vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The House of Commons recently approved air strikes against the militants in Iraq.

Dewsbury and Mirfield MP Simon Reevell (Con) voted in favour of the air strikes, which parliament approved by 524 votes to 43 – but Batley and Spen MP Mike Wood (Lab) was one of the few to oppose military intervention.

Mr Reevell said it was right to offer support to forces fighting IS after a request from the Iraqi government.

But Mr Wood said air strikes would store up problems for the future.