CORBYN SNUBS FORCES HEROES
Labour leader ignores Armed Forces Day invitations to bask in fawning crowds at Glastonbury –
JEREMY CORBYN snubbed war veterans to grandstand at Glastonbury yesterday, despite receiving a personal invitation from a former soldier to mark Armed Forces Day.
While Prime Minister Theresa May was praising the “tremendous” work of the military at a special event in Liverpool, the Labour leader chose to attend the music festival in Somerset where he proudly declared his support for the “peace movement”.
Former Army officer James Heappey, Tory MP for Wells, had invited 67-yearold Mr Corbyn to a military parade at Burnham-on-Sea just 15 miles from the 900-acre site in Pilton, Somerset, but he failed to turn up.
His spokesman said he was honouring a “long standing commitment” to speak at Glastonbury, where he took to the Pyramid Stage for 15 minutes before a fawning crowd of young revellers.
Dressed in a sweat-stained blue linen shirt and chinos, and carrying a copy of the Labour party manifesto, he referred to last week’s fire in Kensington, asking the crowd chanting his name: “Is it right that so many people are frightened of where they live at the moment having seen the horror of what happened in Grenfell Tower?”
BBC News 24 chose to broadcast the highly politicised outpouring live on the news channel, while confining Mrs May’s attendance at a military event in Liverpool to a packaged item.
The Prime Minister had joined the Earl of Wessex, representing the Queen, and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon for the national military event on the city’s waterfront. She said: “It is wonderful that we mark the tremendous job that our Armed Forces do for us here at home and across the world, helping to keep us safe.
“Of course recently, after the terrible terrorist attack in Manchester, we saw our Armed Forces on the streets helping to reassure people of their safety and security, and it’s great that we recognise the work that all our Armed Forces do, as I say, both here and across the world.
“They do a fantastic job for us and we should be grateful to them all.”
Mrs May, who attended the event with husband Philip, stopped to pose for pictures with some of the hundreds who attended the celebration on Liverpool’s Pier Head and was cheered by many in the crowd.
The event began with a gun salute and parade and also included receptions, displays, a visit from Royal Navy ship HMS Iron Duke and flypasts by the Red Arrows and Typhoon.
Yesterday morning, Mr Corbyn tweeted a photograph of himself with veterans, captioned: “On Armed Forces Day I thank our dedicated forces and veterans for their service, sacrifice and commitment.”
It soon emerged the picture was taken two years ago, on Remembrance Sunday in 2015. He later posted images of himself serving beer at the festival before thanking Glastonbury “for inviting me to speak about how, together, we can build a country for the many, not the few”.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen accused the Labour leader of getting his priorities wrong, saying: “He’s certainly more of a rabble rouser than a patriot. It just shows how shallow his political loyalties are.”
Mr Heappey, who wrote to Mr Corbyn on Friday inviting him to the 12.30pm seaside parade – which would have given him enough time to get to Glastonbury for his 4.14pm appearance – said: “Going to Liverpool would have meant he’d miss Craig David but he could easily have been back in Somerset in time for Katy Perry. Instead he put politicking on the Pyramid Stage ahead of his responsibilities as the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.” Having travelled to Glas- tonbury by train and bus, Mr Corbyn lunched with Greenpeace members before taking to the stage.
He was joined at the event by fellow Labour MPs Yvette Cooper, her husband, the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls, and deputy Labour leader Tom Watson. After leaving the festival he travelled to Exeter, where he is believed to have attended the RMT conference last night.
Chants of “Corbyn, Corbyn” began as the festival gates opened at Worthy Farm at 7am on Wednesday and revellers have taken to shouting the Islington North MP’s name, as well as “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” to the tune of the White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army.
Festival organiser Michael Eavis told the festival’s on-site newspaper: “Millions of young people, Glastonbury people, voted for him.
“I think he has a fundamental sense of justice, of real political change, of being anti-war and anti-nuclear.”
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will be part of a panel discussing whether democracy is broken at the festival’s Left Field Tent at 12pm today.
The politicians’ appearances at Glastonbury come as the party faces criticism for stirring up mob mentality, and also for politicising the tragedy of Grenfell Tower.
Mr McDonnell has already called for one million people to take to the streets of London next Saturday in a mass protest against the Conservative Government.
It emerged that the firebrand has made repeated calls for insurrection in speeches for the militant union that has helped to mobilise the masses next weekend.
He told members of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union back in 2012: “Ninety-nine per cent of my time now is
devoted to what? It’s devoted to bringing this Government down, because that’s what we’ve got to do, isn’t it? We can’t stand back and let them continue to undermine our community. We’ve got to stand up and fight.”
Calling for a “class war”, he added: “Parliamentary debates will not bring this Government down. They used to call it insurrection but now we’re polite and we call it direct action.”
Two years later, he described Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt as “that bastard” and called for more industrial action, saying: “Let’s join them on their picket lines and at their rallies.”
Last Wednesday protesters took part in a “Day of Rage” march on Westminster in a bid to disrupt the State Opening of Parliament. Some chanted: “Hey! Hey! Theresa May! How many kids did you kill today?” While others shouted: “Get her out!”
Matthew Bolton, deputy chairman of the peaceful protest group Citizens UK, which has provided hands-on support to Grenfell Tower victims, accused the demonstrators of “capitalising on misery”, saying: “Accusing Theresa May of burning children is not an appropriate response.”
He added: “Seeking to turn what happened immediately into confrontations and party politics is not what the victims of Grenfell need now. I’m not sure what a day of rage is supposed to achieve.”
Moderate Labour MPs say the party is once again engulfed by civil war as the extreme Left-wing fight to elect as many delegates as possible to the Labour Party Conference in September in a bid to win a conference floor vote on Mr McDonnell’s plan for the next leader to be elected by five per cent of MPs instead of 15 per cent.