Labour MPs appear to be just as annoyed by Jeremy Corbyn’s links to the Stop The War coalition as they are about his comments on shoot to kill. In the questions following David Cameron’s Commons statement on the Paris attacks, several MPs used the opportunity to make coded attacks on Stop The War for a blog it published, titled ‘Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East’. It has been since been removed (cached version here) and Corbyn said he was glad it was deleted — but he has yet to condemn the fact it was published in the first place.
Ian Austin, the MP for Dudley North, appeared to attack both Stop The War and the Labour leader’s view that Britain’s foreign policy has increased the terrorist threat:
‘I agree with everything the Prime Minister said about Syria and about terrorism. But does he agree with me that those that say that Paris is reaping the whirwind of Western policy or who want to say that Britain’s foreign policy has increased, not diminished, the threats to our own nation security are not just absolving the terrorists of responsibility, but risk fuelling the sense of grievance and resentment which can develop into extremism and terrorism.
Emma Reynolds, the former shadow communities secretary, also appeared to attack Stop The War:
‘Does the Prime Minister agree that full responsibility for the attacks in Paris lie solely with the terrorists and that any attempt by any organisation to somehow blame the West or France’s military intervention in Syria is not only wrong, disgraceful but also should be condemned?’
Her response was greeted with many cheers, prompting Cameron to say ‘the response right across the House shows how right the honourable lady is’. Even one of Corbyn’s frontbenchers, shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden, attacked STW:
‘Can I ask the Prime Minister to reject the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the West do? Does he agree with me that such an approach risks infantilising the terrorists and treating them as children, when the truth is they are adults entirely responsible for what they do. No one forces them to kill innocent people in Paris or Beirut and unless we are clear about that, we will fail even to be able to understand the threat we face, let alone confront it and ultimately overcome it’.
Cameron also praised McFadden, saying ‘it is that sort of moral and intellectual clarity that is necessary to be able to deal with terrorists’. It seems a number of Corbyn’s own MPs think that clarity is more important than loyalty to their leader, too.
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