LABOUR PAINS
Jeremy Corbyn said he wished Nato ‘didn’t exist’ in unearthed footage
JEREMY Corbyn said he wished NATO and other Western military alliances “didn’t exist”, unearthed footage revealed last night.
The Labour leader made the comments at a rally in support of Kurds in Syria, which was held outside the BBC's London headquarters in 2014.
Flanked by David Lammy and Catherine West – both current election candidates - he said: “‘I am no fan of NATO, indeed I wish NATO didn’t exist.
“I am no fan of Western military alliances. Indeed, I wish they didn’t exist.”
The comments emerged on the eve of today’s NATO summit in Watford, which comes at a difficult time for the alliance.
Emmanuel Macron has branded it “brain dead” and questioned its worth, while Donald Trump has raised concerns about America’s commitment.
Mr Corbyn has repeatedly suggested NATO should have been wound up after the collapse of the Soviet Union and has argued in favour of curbing its powers.
'NO FAN OF NATO'
In 2014 he said it had been set up “in order to promote a cold war with the Soviet Union” and was “an engine for the delivery of oil to the oil companies and the main nations of this world”.
And in a leadership hustings two years later he refused to confirm he would honour Article 5 and come to the defence of a fellow member under attack from Russia.
Labour’s manifesto says the party is committed to Britain’s membership of NATO and will continue to meet the club’s target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence.
Meanwhile Nigel Farage claimed yesterday that eurocrats in Brussels “want NATO out of Europe” so they can build their own EU army.
Speaking at a rally in Buckley, Wales, he said: “NATO and a European Defence Union cannot coexist. No man effectively can serve both.
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“In a world where there are major serious threats we need that military relationship with America today as much as we’ve ever needed it.
“If we leave the European Defence Union it becomes valueless, but if we stay don’t be surprised if NATO falls to pieces and we lose the security and protection America had for us.”
Brussels chiefs have insisted that new European military projects are designed to add to rather than replace the decades-old alliance.
Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, and Sadiq Khan attend a vigil for the victims of the London Bridge terror attack
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