Jeremy Corbyn has strongly defended the Stop the War coalition and declared his complete backing for the organisation, ignoring repeated calls from his internal Labour opponents to cut ties with the organisation.
Advertisement
Asked whether he believed Corbyn, who attended the group’s Christmas dinner last week, could be a threat to national security if he won power, Hutton told The Sunday Times: “Yes, I do”.
The comments come after Phillips’ rumoured run-in with Corbyn ally and shadow global development secretary Diane Abbott during a meeting of Labour’s parliamentary party.
Mr Corbyn was chairman of Stop the War, which was set up at the time of the Afghanistan invasion in 2001, until September.
In a speech to 200 activists who paid at least £50 a head for a three-course meal, he said Stop the War was “a vital force at the heart of our democracy”.
Jeremy Corbyn must put leadership of the Labour party before his commitments to outside protest movements, Lord Prescott has said.
After the Paris attacks in which 130 people died, the group posted an article which said the French capital “reaps the whirlwind of Western support for extremist violence in the Middle East”.
Caroline Lucas has quit her role as patron of the Stop The War Coalition, citing disagreements with some of the anti-war group’s “recent positions”.
If that is making Jeremy better, I will roll my sleeves up.
“Every time he opens his mouth he manages to offend large numbers of people, so maybe he should just open his mouth a little less”, Mr Dugher said.
“We’re still in the early stages really, but I imagine we will get together in the end to form a Momentum South West”, he said.
Meanwhile, close Corbyn ally Ken Livingstone denied he had been offered a seat in the House of Lords, but told the Evening Standard: “If Jeremy wanted me to do anything like that, I would do it”.
Corbyn is billed as a “special guest” for an event held tonight at EV Restaurant at 6:30pm, including other guests Andrew Murray, Lindsey German and Brian Eno.
Advertisement
“I don’t think these are views that are based on the values of internationalism and solidarity of the Labour Party and I hope my party leader will distance himself from this organisation and pull out of the dinner tonight”. In a statement, her office said: “Caroline stepped back from the Stop The War Coalition a few weeks ago”.
