Corbyn's latest comments on Ukraine should remind us just how absurd it was for any Labour MP to back him
Source _ Daily Telegraph 21/04/22
Back in the early days of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour MPs needed a Plan B after their attempt to depose him had failed. Having resigned en masse from his front bench, held a vote of no confidence (which Corbyn ignored), then mounted a challenge against him, they had no choice but to take a different approach.
The conclusion they reached was simple: they would campaign to make him prime minister. Twice.
Those same Labour MPs would now prefer it if we regarded all this as ancient history, pointing out that Corbyn has been without the party whip for 18 months and is unlikely to be selected as a Labour candidate again. His leadership, we are invited to believe, was a mere blip, a bizarre but short-lived episode in which the party lost its way.
But it’s not quite as straightforward as that. On Wednesday we were treated to another glimpse of Corbyn’s mindset as he gave an interview on Ukraine. It’s clear what he wanted the headline to be: Corbyn doesn’t blame Nato for provoking Russia to invade.
Unfortunately, the follow-up questions after he had made this statement revealed that he still holds precisely the opposite view. Talking about the choices open to the Nato leadership following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, he said: “Then more hawkish elements took over and Nato went into expansion and that in turn was mirrored by greater militarism in Russia.” Asked if he admired Volodymyr Zelensky, Corbyn, adopting the air of a petulant teenager, replied: “I’ve never met him. I don’t know.”
Shorn of his former phalanx of loyal retainers, Corbyn’s interview exposed him as the shallow, cynical figure he always was. But none of this is remotely surprising.
If there’s any characteristic that can be attributed to Corbyn it is consistency. The things he believes today are the things he believed when he was a young man. And they are the things he believed while he led Britain’s main opposition party. These were not secret: his long record as a back bencher and of speaking bland clichés to power over decades left no room for the benefit of the doubt.
Corbyn’s hostility towards Nato was well known before he became leader. And in that post, he even demanded that the Kremlin be given the benefit of the doubt after it launched a chemical attack on the British city of Salisbury. And still his party sought to make him prime minister, to put him in charge of our foreign policy, security services and military forces.
Few would now suggest that that attempt was justified or even ethical. If they did, I would like to hear their arguments.
Does Keir Starmer now regret the part he played in seeking to install Corbyn in No 10, knowing what he knew about his leader’s views? Or does he believe, as many of his colleagues do, that he had no alternative, that the interests of the party trumped the interests of the country?
If Starmer has any judgment at all, he will share the relief felt by the nation that Corbynism was finally defeated on December 12 2019. And he will apologise for seeking its triumph and all the dreadful consequences that would have resulted from it.
Starmer is a big fan of apologies. He made a sincere and powerful apology to Britain’s Jews on the day he assumed the leadership. He has demanded that Corbyn apologise for suggesting that anti-Semitism in the party under his leadership was exaggerated by the media.
Now it is Starmer’s turn. He’s clever enough to recognise that his past support for Corbyn will continue to be used against him by his Conservative opponents. But in a sense, that’s unimportant. That’s just politics and tactics. What Starmer needs to be more concerned about is the moral failure he showed in supporting Corbyn and how he can now make amends for it and draw a line under it.
It's time Keir Starmer admitted he was wrong to campaign for Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister. He should apologise for it. If he doesn’t, he should never be allowed to forget it.
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