IN PUTIN’S POCKET
Jeremy Corbyn branded Vladimir Putin’s puppet after refusing to accept Russia was behind nerve agent attack
JEREMY Corbyn faced open mutiny last night after he cast doubt on whether Russia was really behind the Salisbury nerve agent outrage.
Two senior Labour shadow cabinet members turned on their hard left leader for refusing to join almost unanimous Commons condemnation and stand firm against the Kremlin.
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Instead of agreeing with Theresa May to blame Vladimir Putin’s regime for the nerve agent attack, Mr Corbyn’s spokesman Seumas Milne deepened the anger further by casting aspersions on MI5 and MI6’s reliability on WMDs.
Veteran leftwing activist Mr Milne even suggested former Soviet states like Ukraine may be responsible, after secreting away the Novichok nerve gas.
Fury erupted from all sides of the political divide at the extraordinary claims as all the rest of Westminster pulled together.
The PM said they left her “shocked and surprised”.
What we know so far:
- Jeremy Corbyn was branded Vladimir Putin's puppet after refusing to accept Russia was behind the nerve agent attack.
- Theresa May announced she would kick out 23 diplomats in the wake of the Sergei Skripal case.
- The Russian Embassy has responded by calling the expulsion 'unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted' - and said 'response measures will not be long in coming'.
- The Prime Minister also confirmed government officials and members of the Royal family would not be attending the World Cup in Russia.
- Vladimir Putin ignored a deadline set by the PM to explain his involvement in the poisoning and instead warned Britain 'not to threaten a nuclear power'.
- Skripal's niece claimed that daughter Yulia could have been the real target of the nerve agent attack.
- CCTV footage emerged showing Skripal's last journey before the chemical attack.
- Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov was discovered dead with 'strangulation marks' on his neck on Monday night by daughter Natalia Glushkova in New Malden, South West London.
- Glushkov's daughter Natalia is believed to be in hiding after discovering her dad's dead body.
- The hunt for clues has now been extended 25 miles away to Gillingham, Dorset.
- Russian exiles have now been asked by cops to help identify a mystery couple aged between 35 and 40 seen close to Skripal and his daughter before they collapsed.
- Skripal and daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition in hospital after being exposed to the nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4.
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And Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told The Sun the comments were “sickening”, and Mr Corbyn himself “deluded”.
Tory backbencher David Morris dubbed Mr Corbyn “little more than Putin’s puppet”, adding: “He can never be trusted to defend us or uphold our freedoms”.
Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith lead the open defiance of her 68-year-old leader.
Contradicting Mr Milne completely, Ms Griffith said the Iraq WMD controversy and the Novichok attack “are very, very different instances”.
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She added: “What we have in this particular case is the issue of Litvinenko, but we also have a number of other acts of aggression by Russia”.
Slamming Mr Corbyn’s ambivalence, Ms Griffith added: “It is aggression, and I think we need to take a clear stance on that.
“It would have been easier for us if he had made it very clear at the beginning just how much we do support this action of expelling the 23 diplomats.
“I think that would have been a bit easier, and perhaps then we would not have had the conversations that we are seeing.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry also broke ranks with Mr Corbyn’s line to mount a blistering attack on Russia - adding she backed the PM completely.
At a London seminar, Ms Thornberry said: “What could better sum up the challenges we face in protecting human rights and the rule of law than the idea a foreign state could launch an attack on our soil using an outlawed nerve agent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin smirks when asked if Russia is responsible for the poisoning of spy Sergei Skripal
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“We utterly condemn this despicable act and support all the measures taken by the Government today in response to it.
“The Russian Government has been given an opportunity to provide a credible explanation as to how its nerve agent stock came to be used in this attack.
“It’s something they haven’t even tried to do so therefore they have to face the consequences.”
At least two Labour shadow ministers were last night considering their positions, The Sun was also told.
Labour leadership was plunged into a fresh crisis last night after the hard left leader sparked outrage.
Mr Corbyn’s explosive comments in the Commons came despite receiving a classified intelligence briefing from government officials as a Privy Councillor yesterday morning.
Responding to the PM’s spy expulsions and punishment package on the Kremlin, he told MPs that “nerve agents are abominable” and it was “utterly reckless for them to be used in a civilian environment”.
But all he would say on Moscow is that “the Russian authorities must be held to account on the basis of the evidence”, and instead urged that Britain’s response “must be both decisive and proportionate”.
Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s previous support for Russia
JEREMY Corbyn sparked uproar this week with his repeated failure to condemn Vladimir Putin for the Sergei Skripal poisoning - but it should be no surprise given the Labour leader and his top team’s close links to Russia...
Jeremy Corbyn himself
Mr Corbyn has often blamed anyone other than Russia when it comes to aggression by Moscow, usually directing his ire towards Nato, which he said was “the father of the Cold War”.
In 2015 he also blamed the violence in the Crimea on the west, saying: “I am not condoning what Russia has done and is doing [in Ukraine].
“But everything has an equal and opposite reaction and so the more you build up Nato forces, the more of an excuse the Russians have.”
In 2014, as Russia invaded the Crimea Mr Corbyn wrote in an article for the communist newspaper the Morning Star saying Putin’s actions were “not unprovoked”.
Seumas Milne, director of communications
His views are closely echoed by his most senior and trusted adviser Seumas Milne, a former associate editor at the Guardian.
He has previously said Britain and its Nato allies were guilty of “anti-Russian incitement”, which was a “dangerous folly”, along with writing a series of pro-Putin articles.
He caused anger among Labour MPs yesterday for appearing to compare the evidence which pointed to Russian involvement in Salisbury with the case for war in Iraq.
But Mr Milne has long been on Russia’s side when it comes to such matters, and back in 2014 appeared at an event with Mr Putin and was pictured shaking the Russian leader’s hand.
The conference in Sochi took place after the invasion and annexation of Ukraine, which he defended as “clearly defensive”.
Links to Russia Today
The 59-year-old has also appeared numerous times on Russia Today, the Kremlin-funded TV channel which has been censured by the broadcast regulator Ofcom on multiple occasions.
Mr Corbyn himself was a regular guest on its programmes when he was a backbench MP, saying in 2013 the West should refrain from using “unconfirmed reports” about the use of chemical weapons in Syria to attack Russia.
He also suggested viewers stop watching mainstream broadcasters and give Russia Today, now known as RT, a chance instead.
A study in October last year found shadow ministers have featured at least 26 times since Mr Corbyn became Labour leader in 2015.
One of his key lieutenants, the shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon, has appeared 11 times, as have shadow ministers Barry Gardiner and Peter Dowd.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has also been on – but this week said he won't be making any more appearances, saying its coverage "goes beyond objective journalism".
Labour leader's advisers
Mr Corbyn has other people close to him who are supporting of Putin’s regime, with senior advisor Andrew Fisher allegedly using his position in the leader’s office to remove a reference to tackling “Russian aggression” from a briefing for it MPs on benefits of EU, saying: “We want a positive line.”
Mr Fisher, who wrote Labour’s 2017 manifesto, has a long-term association with Marxists and communists, and has also written extensively on Russia in the Morning Star.
Another advisor, Andrew Murray, also has a history of supporting the Russian regime through his leadership of the Stop the War coalition, which Mr Corbyn has been chair of and a longstanding supporter.
The group organised at least three rallies in Britain for Boris Kagarlitsky, a Putin apologist paid by the Russian government, with Mr Corbyn and Mr Milne speaking at one of them.
Mr Murray, who was seconded from the Unite union to Labour headquarters for the 2017 general election, also wrote an article in the Morning Star in 1999 arguing Josef Stalin’s leadership was preferable to the West, as well as others praising the Soviet Union.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal visits a computer shop in Salisbury shortly before nerve agent attack
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Mr Corbyn also drew furious Tory MPs’ jeers as he parroted some of the Kremlin’s questions to Mrs May, including its key demand for Britain to hand over samples of the Novichok found.
Speaking a few minutes after Mr Corbyn sat down, Seumas Milne – a Putin defender while a Guardian columnist – went further still
Mr Milne said: “The Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don’t.
“However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.
“So, I think the right approach is to seek the evidence to follow international treaties, particularly in relation to prohibitive chemical weapons.”
Asked whether Russia was being framed, he said the evidence pointed to either the Russian state being responsible or losing control of the agent.
Putting Ukraine in the frame, Mr Milne added: “If the material is from the Soviet period, the break-up of the Soviet state led to all sorts of military material ending up in random hands”.
PM Theresa May confirms that Russia is 'highly likely' to have carried out the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury using military-grade nerve agent
Labour backbenchers lined up to slate Mr Corbyn in the Commons.
In stark contrast to the Labour boss, former Labour leadership contender Yvette Cooper insisted Russia’s actions “must be met with unequivocal condemnation” – winning a big cheer from all sides of the house.
Former Labour Cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw urged the PM to investigate Vladimir Putin’s influence on universities and “our political parties”.
He said: “Can I assure the Prime Minister that most of us on these benches fully support the measures she has announced and indeed some of us think they could have come a bit sooner.”
Chris Bryant said he “completely supported everything the Prime Minister has said today” and urged the PM to boot out the Russian Ambassador – claiming he had tried to interfere in elections in the House and block debates.
In a withering put down for the Labour leader, Pat McFadden said: “Responding with strength and resolve when your country under threat is an essential component of political leadership.
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“There is a Labour tradition that understands that and it has been under by prime ministers of all parties who have stood at that despatch box.
Tory backbencher Mark Francois slammed Jeremy Corbyn and branded him a “CND badge wearing apologist for the Russian state”.
Livid DUP MP Sammy Wilson accused Mr Corbyn of adopting “the policy of appeasement”.
And ex-Army officer and Tory MP James Heappey said Mr Corbyn’s response was “utterly alien to everything that makes sense to people beyond his inner circle, let alone the Armed Forces he hopes to have one day in his charge”.
And in a sign of mass defiance, dozens of backbench Labour MPs signed a Commons motion last night – drawn up Labour MP John Woodcock – to “‘unequivocally accept” the Russian state’s culpability for the Salisbury attack and back the PM’s sanction measures.
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Controversial Mr Milne was last night accused by the Tories of being “a serial apologist” for Putin and the Kremlin.
While a columnist for The Guardian before joining the Labour leader’s team as his Communications Director, Milne mounted repeated defences of the Russian president.
He once appeared alongside the Russian president on a panel at a propaganda summit in the Black Sea city of Sochi.
Milne has also favourably described Putin as “a centrist” and claimed accusations that he assassinates political opponents as false.
Mr Milne also dubbed Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 as “clearly defensive”, and that evidence for its troops’ invasion of western Ukraine was “thin on the ground”.
He has also praised the Soviet Union, insisting the disastrous Communist regime “helped to drive up welfare standards”.
Mr Corbyn’s fresh leadership crisis over his handling of Russia follows embarrassing revelations last month of his relationship with a Soviet bloc spy from Czechoslovakia.
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