Corbyn fails the test

Jeremy Corbyn has been under pressure from Labour MPS to make a statement about the crisis in Venezuela, a country whose Left-wing leadership he has greatly admired. It duly arrived yesterday and, needless to say, he flunked it.

Most impartial observers see Venezuela as an oil-rich nation whose people have been appallingly let down by phony idealism, corruption and despotism. Beginning with the late Hugo Chavez and continued through his protégé Nicolas Maduro, the search for a Socialist nirvana has become a nightmare reality for millions. Rigged elections are now being used to evict President Maduro’s opponents from the assembly and beef up his powers to crack down on dissent. Inevitably, there have been violent clashes between government forces and protesters.

It is clear that the Venezuelan government is at fault here and yet the Labour leader simply cannot bring himself to acknowledge this. His comments used the same weaselly words that he once deployed when talking about the IRA: he condemned violence “on all sides” and called for a dialogue to resolve Venezuela’s difficulties.

He said that it was important to recognise the “effective and serious attempts” to reduce poverty, improve literacy and the lives of the poorest. But it is equally important to recognise the outcomes – food shortages, a collapse in health care and rampant inflation. Frank Field, a former minister who supported Mr Corbyn’s successful leadership bid two years ago, said that how he responded to the Venezuela issue would be a major test of his leadership. He said that one of the worries people may have about Labour is “do we believe in parliamentary government or not”. Now we know.