I’m disappointed in Corbyn, says hero policeman’s father-in-law
Lifelong Labour supporter and former Welsh miner adds his voice to party MPS angered at leader’s words
THE father-in-law of the policeman who suffered the effects of the nerve agent used to poison Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter last night criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s “mealy mouthed” response to the attack.
William Pomeroy, whose daughter Sarah is married to Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, said he felt let down.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the lifelong Labour supporter said: “I’m very disappointed in Mr Corbyn. He has been a bit mealy-mouthed about Russia’s involvement. He should be representing ordinary people like me.”
In contrast, Mr Pomeroy said, Theresa May and her Government were doing “what they can”.
The Labour leader last night still refused to apologise for his earlier statements, suggesting that “mafia-like groups”, rather than the Kremlin, could be behind the Salisbury poisoning.
Writing in The Guardian, Mr Corbyn urged Mrs May not to “rush way ahead of the evidence” and repeated his claim that Russia may have lost control of the deadly Novichok agent that poisoned DS Bailey and the Skripals.
His refusal to blame Russia is likely to further anger Labour MPS. Several openly defied him yesterday by offering Mrs May their full support. They included Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, who said Mr Corbyn’s statement made it more difficult to focus on how to respond to Russia.
Anger over Mr Corbyn’s behaviour intensified as the day wore on, with 18 Labour MPS signing a motion declaring they “unequivocally” believed Russia to be behind the attack.
During a trip to Carlisle, Mr Corbyn insisted he had been “extremely definite” in condemning the attack, adding it was his job as Leader of the Opposition to ask questions.
Meanwhile, Seumas Milne, his spin doctor, faced calls to resign after telling journalists that security service intelligence had been “problematic” in the past. His comments were derided by Labour MPS, including Mike Gapes, former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, who said they were not made “in my name”.
Mr Pomeroy, the son of a South Wales miner, spoke out as concern for DS Bailey’s family grew after Army and police sealed off his home and removed two family cars for examination, amid fears that the officer may have carried traces of the nerve agent Novichok home after trying to resuscitate Sergei Skripal and Yulia, his daughter.
The 38-year-old officer was among the first to attend to the stricken couple and was initially discharged from Salisbury hospital after a check-up, only to be readmitted.
It is not yet known whether he was exposed to traces of the chemical when he tried to help, or if he came into contact with it in the maroon BMW in which the Skripals drove into Salisbury.
Mr Pomeroy, 65, said his son-in-law was recovering and talking to his wife, but “was not yet out of the woods”.
He added: “He’s got such a sense of duty … he went to help those people without hesitating.”
Jack Straw, the former Labour foreign secretary, told the BBC that people around Mr Corbyn had “serious form” as apologists for Russia. He added: “Seumas Milne is an old Trot… but he’s normally made the wrong call, as Trotskyists usually do.”
‘There are times in the affairs of our nation when the House should speak with a single, united voice. This is just such a time. The Leader of the Opposition [Michael Foot] spoke for us all. He did this nation a service when, in clear and unmistakable terms, he condemned what he called this brutal aggression.” Those were the words of Edward du Cann in the Commons in April 1982 after the invasion of the Falklands.
What a depressing contrast to the way Jeremy Corbyn, another Left-wing Labour leader, has performed this week. His failure in Parliament to condemn Russia straightforwardly has appalled many in his own party and risked undermining efforts to forge a collective international response to the Salisbury poison attack.
The source of his anxiety vis-à-vis Britain’s response is hard to decipher. He acknowledges that the nerve agent was Russian-made and that its use possibly points the finger of responsibility at Moscow. He even endorses the expulsion of diplomats and calls for tougher sanctions. At the same time, however, he revives memories of the “dodgy dossier” that he says led to war in Iraq, as if there is some potential equivalence, and asks for a foreign policy that reduces tensions – as if the use of nerve agent on British soil is best handled with dialogue and a cup of tea.
The public can see right through this. Mr Corbyn’s response to the Salisbury horror has been conditioned by his anti-western bias and his lack of faith in British institutions. Mr Foot recognised that the enemy in the Falklands war was a thuggish dictatorship seeking to harm a sovereign people. Mr Corbyn will convince few today that he shares that same instinctive, common-sense patriotism.