Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

What would prime minister Corbyn have done about Putin?

Jeremy Corbyn’s question in the House of Commons this week filled me with the relief of catastrophe averted. Addressing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the former Labour leader and Morning Star columnist said:

‘Would he be prepared to countenance, if the Russians pulled back, any reduction in the Nato presence on the border as well in order to bring about a longer-term secure peace in the region?’

In reply, with admirable restraint, Wallace condescended to state the obvious. ‘We didn’t put 165,000 combat troops on the edge of a sovereign country and hold a gun to the head of a democratically elected government,’ he pointed out.

Once and for all, it exposed the true moral degradation of Magic Grandpa

The catastrophe of war in Ukraine may be unavoidable. But thanks to the common sense and decency of the British electorate, the catastrophe of a pro-Putin Corbyn government never came to pass.

Between 2015 and 2019, the egregiousness of the former Labour leader’s position on Nato and Russia was overshadowed only by his views on Israel and the Palestinians. How can we forget the sound of millions of jaws hitting the floor as he demanded that the poison used against the Skripals in Salisbury be analysed by the Russians before Britain pointed fingers at the Kremlin? Yet that clap of jaws on floors rang in our ears once again this week when Corbyn and his fellow travellers from the Stop the War coalition signed an open letter blaming Britain – yes Britain – for the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine.

‘The policies of the British government (have) poured oil on the fire throughout this episode,’ the letter said. ‘The British government has talked up the threat of war continually, to the point where the Ukraine government has asked it to stop.

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