Unionist anger over Corbyn visit to Belfast
A new row over Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged IRA sympathies erupted last night over plans to make his first visit to Northern Ireland as Labour leader.
He is this week expected to exploit Conservative divisions over Brexit by travelling to Belfast and visiting the border.
But the opposition leader, whose links with the IRA as a backbench MP were monitored by British intelligence services, sparked Tory anger over a planned event during his visit. Labour insiders said he was expected to speak at Queen’s University, Belfast, where the IRA shot dead a lecturer at the height of the Troubles.
Tory Party deputy chairman James Cleverly accused Mr Corbyn of a ‘callousness and deep lack of respect’, while DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr challenged him to condemn ‘all IRA violence’.
Mr Corbyn’s visit comes as Theresa May struggles to reach agreement with her cabinet over a post-Brexit customs agreement to avoid a hard border in Ireland.
During his 30-year backbench career, Mr Corbyn campaigned for a united Ireland and shared platforms with convicted terrorists. In 1987 he handed a petition to then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher demanding better visiting conditions for IRA man Hugh Doherty. Sources say Mr Corbyn’s activity led to MI5 keeping a file on him in the 1990s.
Edgar Graham, a 29-year-old unionist law lecturer, was shot dead by the IRA as he was walking down Queen’s University Square in 1983. Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams refused to condemn the killing at the time.
Mr Cleverly said: ‘It’s deeply concerning that Jeremy Corbyn is considering showing up where Edgar Graham was killed by the IRA. It shows a callousness and deep lack of respect. Corbyn gave cover to the IRA while they were bombing and shooting our citizens.’
DUP MP Mr Paisley said: ‘I hope he sees this as an opportunity to condemn all IRA violence.’
Mr Corbyn’s office last night said that it was ‘nonsense’ to accuse him of alack of respect in his choice of venues.