CORBYN’S NUCLEAR MELTDOWN
Labour leader humiliated in calamitous TV debate after refusing SIX times to say he’d use Trident to defend UK
JEREMY Corbyn last night refused to say whether he would defend Britain from nuclear attack.
The pacifist Labour leader was heckled by a live TV audience as he repeatedly ducked questions about his attitude to the UK’s nuclear defences. In a nightmare performance, he also struggled to answer ques- tions about his sympathy for terrorist groups including the IRA, Hezbollah and Hamas.
He was pilloried for his spendthrift policies, with one audience member likening Labour’s manifesto to ‘a letter to Santa Claus’ – and he was challenged
over his failure to expel his friend Ken Livingstone from the party over antisemitic remarks.
Mr Corbyn, vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, was left floundering on the BBC’s Question Time show as members of the audience peppered him with questions about his soft stance on defence.
He began sweating heavily during the exchanges after initially saying he would never approve ‘first use’ of Britain’s Trident weapons. But he then refused at least six times to say whether he would countenance using nuclear weapons to defend the UK from attack.
His stonewalling prompted an angry reaction from one audience member, who directly challenged Mr Corbyn, saying: ‘Would you use it as second use? Or would you let North Korea or some idiot in Iran to bomb us and say, “Oh, we’d better start talking.” You’d be too late.’ You would allow them to do it.’
Mr Corbyn replied: ‘Of course not,’ prompting the question: ‘Well how would you stop them?’
The Labour leader said he would ‘promote disarmament in Korea’, sparking another heckle of ‘impossible’.
Another man addressed Mr Corbyn’s support for unilateral disarmament, saying: ‘I would rather have it and not use it than not have it at all, especially in this day and age.’
Mr Corbyn was asked if he would like to respond and muttered: ‘No.’
The Labour leader insisted Britain would never face attack because he would pursue peace through diplomatic means. He said: ‘I would view the idea of having to use a nuclear weapon as something that was resulting in a failure in the whole world’s diplomatic system.’
When another audience member asked him: ‘Are you saying you will never, ever push the red button?’ Mr Corbyn scowled and replied: ‘I think we have discussed this at some length.’
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson described Mr Corbyn’s refusal to defend Britain as ‘spine-chilling’.
‘I thought it was really spine-chilling to hear Jeremy Corbyn announce that all Labour’s support for our nuclear deterrent, all Labour’s support for our armed forces was completely meaningless because when it came to the business of defending this country he wouldn’t do it,’ he said.
By contrast, Theresa May saved one of her best campaign performances for last night’s show, which was expected to attract the biggest audience of the election programmes.
The Prime Minister came out fighting after the Tories’ campaign wobble, which has seen her poll lead shrink.
Mrs May said only she could be trusted to deliver Brexit – and warned a minority Labour government would put Diane Abbott in the Home Office next week and Nicola Sturgeon in the Cabinet.
She defended her decision to go to the polls, saying it was vital to get a strong mandate for Brexit, adding: ‘I had the balls to call an election.’
Mr Corbyn’s discomfort was not limited to his refusal to use nuclear weapons. He came under fire over his longstanding sympathy with terror groups, including the IRA, which waged a 30year ‘war’ against the British state.
The Labour leader, who once observed a minute’s silence in favour of eight IRA terrorists, insisted that he had spoken to hard-line Republicans to try to encourage a ‘peace process’.
But he was jeered by some members of the audience. One asked Mr Corbyn: ‘You said you didn’t support the IRA, you’ve also supported Hamas and other terrorist organisations. How do you expect the British people to vote for you to go into No 10 when you have sat down and supported them?’
Mr Corbyn said: ‘I have not supported any of those organisations. What I have said is … if you are to bring about a peace process anywhere … there has to be a coming together.’
The audience member shot back: ‘You were talking to them when they were killing our people, our women and chil- dren. You were talking to them.’ The Labour leader said: ‘I was talking to representatives of the republican movement, yes.’
Mr Corbyn’s economic policies, which include massive hikes in tax, also came under scrutiny. A businessman in the audience asked him: ‘What is your plan when businesses say, keep your high taxes, we will go elsewhere?’
The Labour leader insisted his tax plans were fair, saying: ‘We have to be prepared to tackle inequality and we have to be prepared to pay for it – and I am prepared to do that.’
‘This was really spine-chilling’