Labour in turmoil as Corbyn challenged

ONE of Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench team contradicted him over Syria last night.

The Labour leader yesterday raised the spectre of the Iraq war as he criticised plans for military action against Bashar al-Assad.

He said that ‘the dangers’ of bombing ‘could escalate the conflict beyond belief’.

But Kate Osamor, Labour’s shadow international development secretary, called for Assad to be ousted.

She told The House magazine: ‘That person needs to be removed. I mean, intervention must take place if evidence comes back that the PM or the president or whoever the leader is, is gassing his own people. Get them out.

‘But I suppose what we’ve seen is it’s not as easy as that. And I think that’s where Jeremy’s position comes from. It’s not as easy as just removing someone.

‘I think that’s what needs to happen. They always seem to abscond, end up in another country. This world is messed up. It’s not easy. But if a leader is killing their own they need to be removed. They need to go. He needs to be removed. But how do you remove someone? I’m saying this almost as a layman, but I know politically you can’t just remove somebody who is elected.’ She did, however, attempt to defend Mr Corbyn, saying that ‘whatever’ he said on foreign policy was never good enough for his critics. Instead, she suggested, he should keep quiet about foreign affairs and leave the talking to his shadow ministers.

Later, a spokesman for Miss Osamor said: ‘Kate was expressing her horror at the chemical attack in Douma and the terrible suffering of the Syrian people in the conflict.

‘She recognised that there is no simple solution to bringing about lasting peace in Syria, which is why there must be an urgent coordinated international drive via the UN to achieve a ceasefire, a negotiated political settlement and the right of the Syrian people to determine their own future.’