Ex-MI6 chief: My fears about Corbyn

lABOUr was locked in a row with the former head of Mi6 last night after he said he was troubled by Jeremy corbyn’s ‘past associations’.

Sir richard Dearlove said the intelligence community were concerned about the labour leader’s closeness to power.

Appearing on Sky news, Sir richard said: ‘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 he can entirely, as it were, dump your past.’

Sir richard told Sophy ridge on Sunday: ‘He’s enthusiastically associated himself with groups and interests which i would not say were the friends of the British nation.’

As a backbencher, Mr corbyn invited irA members to the House of commons weeks after the bombing of the tory Party conference in Brighton in 1984 and called Palestinian terror group Hamas ‘friends’.

recently he was criticised for having attended a wreathlaying ceremony in a tunisian cemetery where members of the terror group that killed 11 israelis in the 1972 Munich Olympics attack are buried.

Sir richard, who was head of the Secret intelligence Serv- ice from 1999 to 2004, also dismissed conspiracy theories put forward by Mr corbyn’s aides that a ‘deep state’ was working to stop the labour leader from forming a governmism ment. He said: ‘it’s rubbish. i think every government has been loyally served by the British security and intelligence community.’

During the interview, Sir richard also restated his opti- about how Britain can ‘survive and thrive’ outside the european Union and how he is ‘personally happy’ to see the country leaving.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell dismissed Sir richard’s comments about Mr corbyn.

Mr McDonnell, also appearing on Sophy ridge on Sunday, said: ‘Well i’m not surprised. look this is a member, a reactionary member, of the establishment, so i don’t think he’d welcome a labour government of any sort, to be frank. can i just say to him directly, 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.’

÷labour’s £1trillion spending spree would cost the average household £3,520 a year, if it was all passed on in higher taxes, the tories claim.

last month a book claimed senior labour officials privately admit their 2017 election manifesto hid £1trillion of extra spending over a decade. A party spokesman dismissed the £1trillion figure.

‘Not friends of the British’