Miliband (and Russia!) back Comrade Jezza
ED MILIBAND has waded into the Labour row over Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on the Russia crisis – by backing his reluctance to condemn the Kremlin.
The party’s former leader distanced himself from fellow moderates in the party who have criticised Mr Corbyn for suggesting the Russian mafia could be to blame for the Salisbury poisoning.
Mr Miliband told friends: ‘Jeremy was right to ask these questions before rushing to judgment and right to take a calm and measured approach before deciding that the evidence pointed to Russia.’ It came as the pro-Putin media in Moscow heaped praise on Mr Corbyn for his stance.
On Thursday, Rossiya 24 talk show host Andrei Medvedev said of Theresa May’s statement on measures against Russia: ‘Corbyn simply thrashed her in Parliament.’
Another commentator on the Channel, Elena Anayaeva, hailed Mr Corbyn as ‘an experienced and steadfast fighter’.
Labour’s bitter internal row broke out after Mr Corbyn claimed he was the victim of a ‘McCarthyite witchhunt’ for questioning Mrs May’s insistence that there was ‘no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable’.
More than 30 Labour MPs have backed a motion by Corbyn critic John Woodcock, chairman of Labour’s backbench foreign affairs committee, in which they said that they ‘unequivocally’ accepted that Russia was responsible.
They were joined by Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer and defence spokesman Nia Griffith, who both said they agreed with Mrs May that Russia was responsible. Mr Corbyn later adjusted his position to say he accepted the ‘evidence points towards Russia’ but stopped short of saying Moscow was responsible.
Mr Miliband has tacked increasingly close to Mr Corbyn’s Left-wing beliefs since his surprise success in last year’s Election.
In an interview for April’s edition of GQ magazine, Mr Miliband says Mr Corbyn has been able to give voters ‘a sense that he had answers big enough, bold enough, honest enough.’
He adds: ‘If Jeremy leads a radical government then maybe I laid some of the foundations.’
Mr Miliband declined to comment last night.