Labour leadership contender Owen Smith has said the United Kingdom should enter talks with fundamentalist terror group Isis as it seeks peace in the Middle East.
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Citing his experience as part of Britain’s negotiating team during the Northern Irish peace process, Smith said: “Ultimately all solutions to these sorts of. worldwide crises do come about through dialogue”.
Smith raised eyebrows by suggesting the so-called Islamic State could be involved in negotiations with the West in the future.
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging debate the two men clashed over the issue of the U.K.’s “Trident” nuclear deterrent; Corbyn is in favor of the United Kingdom relinquishing its nuclear capabilities unilaterally, while Smith has said he would keep the system and would be willing to use it as prime minister.
And while Mr Smith knew the price of a litre of unleaded petrol, Mr Corbyn was 14p short when he said a first-class stamp costs 50p.
“Every time we have met a terrorist group we have said we will never talk to them; but from the original IRA in 1919 to Eoka in Cyprus, the FMLN in El Salvador, the Gam in Indonesia, the Milf in the Philippines, the PLO in Palestine and the Farc in Colombia, we have ended up doing so”.
He promised to put up corporation tax up to 20 per cent, and said he thinks Brexit was a “desperate mistake for our country”.
The Labour leader’s ignorance about the pair was exposed after he was presented with a photograph of them by host Victoria Derbyshire.
The veteran socialist was challenged during the TV showdown, but could only identify the stars as “the two Geordie TV presenters”.
After being told who they were, he added: “I hope they’ll be happy about this”.
For his part, Smith looked rather pleased with himself after recognising both Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.
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But former Sun political editor and regular TP columnist George Pascoe Watson disagreed.
