Corbyn ‘wants to turn City of London into Pyongyang’

JEREMY Corbyn was last night accused of wanting to reduce the City of London to the status of North Korean capital Pyongyang.

The Labour leader came under fire after he vowed to turn the City into a ‘servant’ of the ‘real economy’ – and attacked bankers for ‘out of control financial wizardry and gambling’.

Defenders of London’s financial hub said it supported 2.2million jobs and brought in £72billion in tax revenues.

Veteran City commentator David Buik said Mr Corbyn appeared to want to ‘turn London into the last Sovietera capital west of Pyongyang’.

‘To go crashing into the City of London at a time of Brexit, which is proving a very difficult process, is close to insanity,’ Mr Buik told the Evening Standard. The Institute of Directors said it would be a huge mistake to treat bankers as ‘bogeymen’.

Speaking to the EEF manufacturers’ organisation, Mr Corbyn said: ‘There can be no rebalancing of our distorted, sluggish and unequal economy without taking on the power of finance.

‘For 40 years, deregulated finance has progressively become more powerful, its dominance over industry obvious and destructive, its control of politics pernicious and undemocratic.’

He added: ‘Out-of-control financial wizardry and gambling were left barely regulated, while the real economies in once-strong industrial areas were put into managed decline.’

He added: ‘The next Labour government will be the first in 40 years to stand up for the real economy … to make finance the servant of industry, not the masters of us all.’

Michael Spencer, chief executive of NEX Group, said: ‘The City is Britain’s biggest contributor to taxation and one of the country’s largest employers. We should be proud … and look for ways to promote and support it, rather than tear it to pieces.’

David Lutton, of business group London First, said the financial sector would be ‘at the heart’ of securing jobs and growth after Brexit.

JEREMY Corbyn last night launched a vitriolic attack on the Press over the Czech spy affair – but failed to offer an explanation for his Cold War conduct.

The Labour leader flatly denied being ‘a Czech spy’, but then dodged detailed questions on his meetings with the East European agent.

His office also firmly rejected demands for him to order the release of any other Soviet bloc intelligence files that may be held on him.

Instead, he tried to deflect the row with a video message on social media that blamed the media for the furore over what he claimed were ‘ridiculous smears’.

He said the stories demonstrated ‘just how worried the media bosses are’ by the prospect of a Labour government.

Mr Corbyn appeared to sign off with a threat to newspaper owners, saying: ‘Well, we’ve got news for them: change is coming.’

One of Mr Corbyn’s shadow ministers, Clive Lewis, went further last night, say- ing the party should launch a clampdown on the Press by reviving plans for Leveson II, the second part of a public inquiry to look into the relationship between the media and the police.

The Labour leader’s statement followed days of revelations about his meetings with a Czech spy in the 1980s.

Yesterday, it emerged that Jan Sarkocy had told his bosses that the then MP could be a useful source and he had ‘an active supply of information on British intelligence services’.

Last night, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg condemned Mr Corbyn’s attack on the media, saying: ‘This is troubling – no one who believes in democracy and the rule of law should threaten free speech. It is the response of totalitarians and a reminder of the controlling nature of socialism.’

Mr Corbyn has been under growing pressure to disclose the true extent of his contacts with Eastern bloc agents during the Cold War since it was revealed last week that he met a Czech operative several times. The Prime Minister said on Monday that Mr Corbyn needed to be ‘open and transparent’ as he faced renewed calls to give permission for all intelligence files held on him by former Eastern bloc countries to be made public.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail asked Mr Corbyn to give written consent for the release of any documents about him in the archives of the Stasi in Berlin, but his office refused. The Labour leader was said to have been granted access by communist East Germany to go behind the Iron Curtain in the 1970s, where he travelled with his then-lover Diane Abbott.

Later, at a manufacturing industry conference in Westminster, Mr Corbyn was asked by the Mail how the business leaders could trust him to be prime minister when serious questions remain about his past and why he would not give consent for his Stasi file to be released. In his first public remarks on the claims, an irritated Mr Corbyn replied: ‘Thanks for your question, I’m very sorry that the Daily Mail has reduced itself to reproducing some nonsense that was written in The Sun beforehand.’

When another reporter was called by the chairman to ask a question, Mr Corbyn stopped her, saying: ‘I thought this was a meeting at which engineering employers got to ask questions rather than the media.’ BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern, who was chairing the event, jokingly asked Mr Corbyn at the end of the session: ‘Are you a Czech spy?’ He replied: ‘No.’

Hours later, Mr Corbyn posted a 104-second film on Twitter telling newspapers they should be worried about the prospect of a future Labour government.

In the video, he said: ‘In the last few days, The Sun, The Mail, The Telegraph and The Express have all gone a little bit James Bond.

‘They’ve found a former Czechoslovakian spy whose claims are increasingly wild and entirely false. It’s easy to laugh, but something

‘Resort to lies and smears’ ‘All gone a little bit James Bond’

more serious is happening. Publishing these ridiculous smears that have been refuted by Czech officials shows just how worried the media bosses are by the prospect of a Labour government.

‘They’re right to be. The general election showed the media barons are losing their influence and social media means their bad old habits are becoming less and less relevant.

‘But instead of learning these lessons they’re continuing to resort to lies and smears. Their readers, you, all of us, deserve so much better. Well, we’ve got news for them: change is coming.’

Mr Corbyn’s deputy, Tom Watson, joined the attack on the Press, saying the stories about Mr Corbyn were ‘false and ridiculous smears’.

His comments came despite the fact he was forced to apologise for making baseless accusations about the late Conservative home secretary, Leon Brittan, being a paedophile. In 2015, Mr Watson apologised to Lord Brittan’s widow for causing distress after he described him as being ‘as close to evil as any human could get’ days after he died. The accusations were later shown to be false.

Last night, a spokesman for the authorities responsible for the Stasi archive was reported to have told The Guardian they can find no file which mentions Mr Corbyn. But another official at the archive said it was possible Mr Corbyn could still be the subject of a file or mentioned in one as there were a huge number of documents.

The Sun said it would continue to ask inconvenient questions regardless of ‘how many times we are threatened with “change”.’ A spokesman said: ‘We would urge Mr Corbyn to answer the questions that have already been put to him.’

IF Jeremy Corbyn wished to lay to rest questions about his loyalty to Britain and his relationship with Iron Curtain countries during the Cold War, several options were open to him.

He could have given a full account of his contacts with a Czech diplomat who was later exposed as a spy, telling the public exactly what he discussed with Jan Sarkocy and his purpose in meeting him on several occasions in the 1980s.

He could also have submitted himself to in- depth questioning by an all- party Commons committee on security or foreign affairs. Better still, he could have demonstrated a clear conscience by authorising Berlin to release files kept on him by east Germany’s secret police – if any such records exist.

But mr Corbyn has done none of these things since Thursday, when The Sun published disturbing extracts from the Czech secret service’s official archives.

Instead, after five days of avoiding questions, he and his inner circle have chosen to launch a menacing attack on conservative-leaning newspapers, including the mail, for drawing public attention to this new evidence of his murky past.

In a blatant threat to the freedom of the Press to criticise the hard-Left, he declares in a video that media bosses are right to be worried about a Labour government.

‘We’ve got news for them,’ he says, adding with a chilling smile: ‘Change is coming.’

As for the entries in the Czech archives – describing him as ‘ the right person for fulfilling the task and giving information’, with ‘ an active supply of information on British intelligence services’ – he makes no attempt to address the questions raised.

Instead, he seeks to laugh them off as ‘ridiculous smears that have been refuted by Czech officials’. His clear message is that under Labour the Press would have been banned from quoting from the archives or interviewing mr Sarkocy. The public would have been kept in the dark.

echoing mr Corbyn, meanwhile, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson also concentrated his fire on the ‘Tory Press’, while leaving the evidence unanswered.

‘Unfortunately for these newspapers,’ he wrote in the Independent, ‘the years of slurs, of stretching the truth to breaking point, of completely one-sided reporting, may be creeping up on them.’

Leave aside the breathtaking hypocrisy of this master of smear campaigns. Indeed, it was mr Watson who peddled the fantasies of ‘Nick’ about a Westminster paedophile ring, gleefully besmirching the reputations of such figures as war hero Lord Bramall, former home secretary Lord Brittan and the late edward Heath.

Forget, too, that this same mr Watson has been bankrolled to the tune of £500,000 by ex-Formula One boss max mosley, chief financier of the state-approved Press regulator Impress. (This arch-enemy of the public’s right to know has now launched a legal action demanding newspapers expunge all records of his infamous sadomasochist orgy with five prostitutes.)

How can anyone honestly believe it’s of no public interest that mr Corbyn, who offers himself as our next prime minister, was named by a communist spy as a potentially useful source of information on our security services?

Indeed, the one good that has come from his folksy video – itself reminiscent of totalitarian regimes’ attempts to manipulate public opinion – is that it has shaken the BBC out of its shameful reluctance to refer to last week’s revelations.

One thing is certain. The Labour leader’s attempts to laugh off the Czech archives and gag the Press only heighten suspicions he has something to hide.

Indeed, the question he leaves unanswered can be summed up in a handful of words: ‘ When Britain and democracy are threatened, whose side is he on?’