Jeremy Corbyn refuses SIX times to say if he would renew Trident and says he NEVER met IRA in car-crash interview
JEREMY Corbyn refused SIX times to say whether he would renew the Trident nuclear deterrent.
He repeatedly declined to give his personal backing to the weapons despite its inclusion in his party’s manifesto.
He revealed Trident would be included in a wholesale UK defence review if Labour won the election and he got the keys to No10.
His car-crash TV interview will cast doubt on whether a Labour government would go ahead with the £41billion overhaul of the Vanguard submarines protecting Britain.
His comments put him at loggerheads with official party policy and his Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith who has insisted the matter is settled.
He also insisted to the BBC’s Andrew Neil he never met the IRA.
He said: “I obviously did meet people from Sinn Féin as indeed I met people from other organisations, and I always made the point that there had to be a dialogue and a peace process.”
But it later emerged he hooked up with members at least seven times between 1984 and 2009.
On Trident, he said: “I voted against the renewal, everybody knows that.
“That decision has been taken, I respect that decision.”
Asked if he had changed his opinion on Nato he said: “No, no.”
This was after describing it as a “dangerous Frankenstein of an organisation” and a “danger to world peace”.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
The Labour leader also finally admitted taking part in a one-minute silence to “honour” IRA terrorists killed by the British Army as he was questioned over the 70 plus hardline Republican meetings he spoke at and attended during the Troubles.
Nato is a dangerous Frankenstein, a danger to world peace
Jeremy Corbyn
Mr Neil also challenged him over why he’d never urged the IRA to lay down their arms – highlighting Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell who backed the “bombs and the bullets” and was later forced to apologise on live TV.
In another incendiary comment, the Labour leader made no promises over immigration saying numbers would only go down if the economy was flourishing.
He said: “We are in favour of managed immigration when the free movement ends when we leave the European Union.”
International Development Secretary Priti Patel said: “He spent half an hour trying to escape from everything he had said and done in his 30 years in politics.”