Ross Clark

independent nuclear deterrent (I have given up trying to ascertain what Labour’s official policy is on the matter and am not anticipating much help from its manifesto either).

At a time when North Korea seems on the point of building a workable nuclear missile and after Vladimir Putin has annexed the Crimea it would be madness for the West to give up its own nuclear deterrent.

Nor, with Donald Trump showing impatience with Nato members who fail to pull their weight, is it a viable defence policy for Europe to try to rely on the deterrent power of the United States’ nuclear arsenal. For Britain to fail to renew its Trident missiles would be an open invitation for nucleararmed rogue states to do whatever they liked.

But it isn’t just on nuclear weapons that a prime minister Corbyn would be a serious danger to Britain. He now says he regrets calling Palestinian extremist groups Hamas and Hezbollah his “friends”. But there is little point in him trying to deny his lifelong attraction to Left-wing terrorists.

At the height of the Troubles in the 1980s he invited Irish republicans to Westminster, spoke at Troops Out rallies, served on the board of a fringe Left-wing magazine which expressed its “support for, and solidarity with, the Irish Republican movement”. In 1988 he spoke at an event, the official programme for which declared that “force of arms is the only method capable of bringing about a free and united socialist Ireland”.

Corbyn hasn’t changed a lot either. When Fidel Castro died last November Corbyn was quick out of the blocks to describe him as a “champion of social justice”.

He now tries to excuse his associations with these groups by saying that he was only trying to say we need to negotiate with them. But funnily enough he has never tried to make the same point about Right-wing militants.

I can’t quite see him inviting to Westminster for negotiations ORBYN might now come across as a harmless old grandad. His manners in political debate are impeccable and I can’t imagine that he would ever personally commit or abet violence. Yet he has never grown out of the more irresponsible end of Leftwing student politics.

To have someone like this in charge of our foreign policy, our defence policy and our fight against Islamist terror groups would be highly dangerous. As if Britain is not already a haven for extremists who have settled here to take advantage of our open society, Corbyn would turn Britain into a sanctuary for them.

What we haven’t had yet is a coherent economic policy from him. Until Labour publishes its manifesto, we can only guess at the horrors which would lie ahead in Corbyn’s Britain for people on modest earnings and for private businesses of all kinds.

Last summer Corbyn crept back into his job as Labour leader after his MPs voted massively against him in a vote of no confidence. We need to be on our guard against him sneaking into Number 10 in similar fashion.

‘He would be a serious danger to the country’