Now Osborne calls Corbyn a ‘national security threat’

LONDON: Chancellor George Osborne used an occasion on Monday to announce extra funding for a nuclear base in Scotland to lay into Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn, terming a Labour party under his leadership as a threat to national security.

Identified with the hard left, Corbyn is tipped to win the Labour leadership election on September 12. He has attracted much criticism from within the Labour party, but this is the first time a senior Conservative leader has attacked him.

Writing for The Sun, Osborne warned of “an unholy alliance of Labour’s left-wing insurgents and the Scottish nationalists”. He also announced 500 million pounds of extra funding to the Trident submarine base in Faslane, Scotland.

The Scottish National Party ( SNP) wants a nuclear- free Scotland, and would like the nuclear arms relocated from Scotland. The SNP opposed Osborne’s funding announcement, and demanded a full, open debate on the purpose of nuclear weapons.

Osborne wrote: “Some have been tempted to treat the Labour leadership contest as a bit of a joke. On the contrary, I think we should take it deadly seriously. For the new unilateralists of British politics are a threat to our future national security and to our economic security”.

He added: “In a world that’s getting more dangerous it would be disastrous for Britain to throw away the ultimate insurance policy that keeps us free and safe…We’re going to take on their (Corbyn and his supporters) dangerous arguments and defeat them.”

There is unconcealed glee in large sections of the Conservative party over the possibility of Corbyn being elected Labour leader since that eventuality will, in their view, make the party unelectable in the 2020 general elections.

Meanwhile, Corbyn continued to attract criticism, as it emerged that he called the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 as a “tragedy”. Instead, he wanted him to be put on trial, he had told an Iranian news channel after the US operation in Pakistan.

In a world that’s getting more dangerous it would be disastrous for Britain to throw away the ultimate insurance policy that keeps us free and safe… We’re going to take on their (Corbyn and his supporters) dangerous arguments and defeat them. GEORGE OSBORNE, Conservative Party member