Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn is to make his first official visit to Scotland where he will begin a campaign to “win back support”.
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Following the shadow cabinet criticism of his comments, Mr Corbyn was asked by the BBC’s John Pienaar what the point of the Labour defence policy debate and review was.
Asked whether he stood by his statement that he would not use nuclear weapons as PM, he replied: “Would anybody press the nuclear button?”
Britain has been a nuclear power since the 1950s, and respective governments both under Labour and Conservative have consistently supported the country’s “weapons of mass destruction” program.
Critics questioned Labour’s commitment to renewing Trident, while the SNP called for Corbyn to come clean on his position.
“There are people in the party who have different views, but what we are all united on is that Isil’s behaviour, its actions and its brutality are totally appalling”, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn is interviewed for breakfast television ahead of day four of the annual party conference in Brighton, Sussex.
“Having nuclear weapons and our enemies knowing that we’re prepared to use them in the most extreme circumstances of self-defense is vital to keeping our country safe”.
In October a year ago the then-Labour leader Johann Lamont resigned from her post with a stinging attack on the UK Labour Party for treating the party in Scotland, ‘like a branch office of London‘.
One said: “These are his values, what he stands for – listening to people, letting everyone have their own opinion and debating it”.
“There will be no question about who is in charge of the Scottish Labour party”, he said.
He told the Standard: ‘He and his policies would be the thing that shuts the whole thing down.
“I don’t know what his policies are, but from what I’ve gleaned so far, he wants to go back about forty years in time, when perhaps, there was a need for the protection of the oppressed population”.
Labour’s only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, said electoral law requiring single main campaigns for each side meant Labour’s involvement with Better Together was a necessity.
And now at his first Labour conference where he speaks as the leader, a few in the ruling class are letting go off the classic British upper lip syndrome and making their unease towards their leader clear.
Shadow defense secretary Maria Eagle also criticized Corbyn’s comments.
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But if the party decides its policy will be pro-Trident where does that leave Mr Corbyn’s leadership? “Our members will be looking for more clarity from Mr Corbyn and his team on his plans for small firms within the business agenda, and we look forward to working with them to develop those ideas”.
