Jeremy Corbyn hires ex-Communist Party official to support up his campaign team – who praised North Korea and Stalin
Andrew Murray quit the hard-left party last December to join Labour
A CAMPAIGNING Communist who has praised Stalin and North Korea has been drafted into Jeremy Corbyn’s Election team.
Andrew Murray has been “seconded” from his day job as chief of staff to Unite chief Len McCluskey.
TJust two years ago he wrote: “Communism still represents in my view a society worth working towards.”
In a separate piece he also suggested the apparent Russian invasion of Ukraine was a sign the “world order is breathing at last”.
The militant only quit the Communist Party of Britain to rejoin Labour five months ago.
His Unite office is thought to still have a picture of Lenin on the wall.
Labour sources yesterday insisted Mr Murray was not running the Election campaign but said had been brought in as a “grown up” given his experience of running Britain’s biggest union.
His daughter Laura was hired as a £40,000 a year personal adviser to Mr Corbyn last summer.
Challenged yesterday, Mr Corbyn insisted Mr Murray was a person with “enormous abilities and professionalism” with “special skills”.
But one exasperated MP said: “I don’t know where to start.”
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Mr Murray joined Morning Star as a political reporter at 19. He also worked briefly for the Soviet Novosti news agency.
A book on the Communist Party a decade ago by Francis Beckett described Mr Murray as “extremely rigid and sectarian”.
He added: “Murray and the Straight Left people were more extreme than most of the Stalinists I knew. The Stalinists were known as tankies, but Murray’s lot were super-tankies.”
He chaired the Stop the War Coalition for a decade until 2011 – and again from 2015 to 2016.
He has previously blamed Western foreign policy for contributing to the “cycle of violence” that fuelled the Paris attacks by IS.
The actions of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists were “minute compared to” historic imperialism. He described the IS march across Iraq as “stunning”.
Over a decade ago he said the Communist Party had “solidarity” with the people’s Korea.
And on the eve of the 120th anniversary of birth of Josef Stalin he defended the tyrant’s rule – and quoted Nikita Khruschev, who said that “against imperalists we are all Stalinists”.
Last week the Communist Party said they would not be standing ANY candidates on June 8 because they want to support Jeremy Corbyn.
They urged their followers to back Labour as the “first step” towards establishing a left-led Government.
Today Mr Corbyn pledged a £37 billion NHS spending spree to revamp A&Es and slash waiting lists.