Corbyn as Prime Minister ‘troubling’, warns spy chief
JEREMY Corbyn’s history of cosying up to extremist groups makes him a “troubling” prospect as Prime Minister, a former spy chief has warned.
Sir Richard Dearlove said he found the Labour leader’s past associations both “surprising and worrying”.
The former head of MI6 has previously said Britain would be less safe if Mr Corbyn was in charge.
Sir Richard made his comments during a rare interview at the weekend.
He said: “I think someone coming from my background is troubled by Jeremy Corbyn’s past associations, some of which I find surprising and worrying.
“He may have abandoned them now but I don’t think you can entirely dump your past.
“He’s enthusiastically associated himself with groups which I would not say were friends of the British nation.”
Sir Richard did not name any of the groups but Mr Corbyn has been criticised for meeting IRA members during the Troubles and for sharing platforms with Palestinian extremists.
Sir Richard’s comments triggered a furious reaction from Labour, which called on the “reactionary member of the establishment” to show more “humility” about his own role in causing the Iraq war.
But Sir Richard denied security officials would withhold information from Mr Corbyn if he won the election, because it would have been “the democratic decision of the British people” to make him Prime Minister.
He said: “In that position, you have to treat him as PM. I’m expressing concerns about him and his political past which I think are pretty extensively shared by a lot of people.”
He also dismissed claims by Corbyn allies that a hostile “deep state” was working against Labour.
“It’s rubbish,” Sir Richard insisted. “I think every government has been loyally served by the British security and intelligence community and I imagine that every future government would be loyally served.”
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell hit back at the claims. He said: “I’m not surprised. This is a member, a reactionary member of the establishment, so I don’t think he’d welcome a Labour government.
“I think he should spend his retirement in quiet contemplation of the role that he played with regard to the Iraq war where over half a million people, at least, were killed.”
Referring to the Chilcot inquiry into the conflict, Mr McDonnell added: “He [Sir Richard] was strongly criticised as the head of an organisation whose intelligence took us into that war .
“I think he should have a bit of humility about the judgments he makes about individuals and others in the future.”