‘The problem we have here is a wider narrative that is being painted about Jeremy and the people that are now running the Labour party and I worry that further association with organisations like this just plays into the hands of that narrative’.
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“When Charles Kennedy was speaking at the 2003 demonstration against the Iraq War which two million people attended, the Liberal Democrats and Charles Kennedy weren’t attacked for that and quite rightly so”.
“[Stop the War] has brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets time and again”, Corbyn told the audience at the event.
The Labour leader issued a defiant statement in support of Stop the War, calling it “one of the most important democratic campaigns of modern times”, despite complaints from some Labour MPs regarding the organisation’s stance on Syria and the deletion of certain posts on Stop the War’s website.
Dubbed a “mob”, a “rabble” and a “faction” by senior party figures, the group argues its only aim is to promote the policies of elected leader Jeremy Corbyn and encourage MPs to give him their support. It has organised protests and lobbies in every part of the country, including by military families. “Branding it as somehow illegitimate is an attempt to close down democratic debate and campaigning”. Green MP Caroline Lucas has also resigned as a patron of Stop the War, citing concerns about the positions it has adopted.
Campaigner Andrew Murray is replacing Mr Corbyn as Stop the War chairman.
Lindsey German, a founding member of the group, said she did not believe the resignation was “necessary”.
“They blamed Paris for reaping the whirlwind of Western intervention after the recent terrorist attacks, they compared Isil/Daesh with the worldwide brigades who fought fascism in 1930s Spain and they have failed to condemn Russian Federation for its invasion and occupation of Ukraine and Georgia”, the former shadow cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
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The group has grown controversial after not letting Syrians speak at an event debating whether there should be air strikes by the United Kingdom in Syria, while they have campaigned against Labour MPs who backed the air strikes. If that’s not going to happen, and I’ve said that to him and to his staff, to their faces: “the day that you are hurting us more than you are helping us, I won’t knife you in the back, I’ll knife you in the front”.
