As Corbyn defends Putin again, whose side is he on?
Reduced to rubble, the dark heart of Assad’s chemical war
Jeremy Corbyn was again accused of siding with Vladimir Putin last night after he refused to dismiss russian claims that Britain was to blame for the Salisbury poisoning and the gas attack in Syria.
He said he still had not seen ‘incontrovertible evidence’ that Putin’s regime was behind the chemical attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
He then refused to dismiss completely russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s claims that the British government had staged the chemical weapons outrage in Douma. He said only that he was ‘surprised’ by the remarks and that mr Lavrov should back them up with evidence.
In a TV interview, mr Corbyn was also loath to lay the blame on Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad for the gas attack, saying merely he would ‘confront’ him with any evidence should it come to light.
And he effectively called for a russian veto on future military action by saying he would back further strikes in Syria only if the UN approved. russia has consistently used its veto to block such action.
Later mr Corbyn wrote to Theresa may calling for the full legal advice on Saturday’s strikes to be published, saying he believed the raids were ‘legally questionable’ and that Parliament should have been consulted.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that by denying state-sponsored involvement in the Salisbury attack, mr Corbyn was displaying a ‘blindness to reality’.
Tory chairman Brandon Lewis tweeted: ‘Corbyn seems more worried about upsetting russia than about preventing use of chemical weapons. Shocking failure by Corbyn to condemn Syrian regime, or russia.’
In a sign of a Labour split, moderate mP Chuka Umunna backed the strikes. He told ITV’s Peston: ‘Ultimately you cannot have the use of chemical weapons go unanswered by the international community. I don’t believe you should hide behind the ultimate veto by russia at the UN Security Council.’
But shadow foreign secretary emily Thornberry refused six times to say Labour would back military action against perpetrators of a proven chemical weapons attack in the event of a russian veto at the UN.
Labour’s justice spokesman richard Burgon also refused to back targeted strikes on known chemical weapons sites and declined to say whether a Labour government would back action based on British intelligence.
Last week mr Corbyn was given intelligence briefings after the attack on former russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter yulia. Inspectors at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed on Thursday that the toxin used in the assault was Novichok – a military grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.
The UK’s National Security Adviser, Sir mark Sedwill, said only russia had the ‘technical means, operational experience and the motive to carry out the attack’.
But mr Corbyn told BBC1’s The Andrew marr Show he wanted further proof.
‘I want to see incontrovertible evidence of it,’ he said. Casting doubt on British intelligence, he said: ‘Assertions and probabilities are not the same as certainty.’
mr Corbyn also failed to dismiss claims from mr Lavrov that the British government was behind the Salisbury attack and had staged the Douma chemical strike.
He said: ‘I’m surprised by his comments. That’s a pretty big assertion to make, he’s either got to back that up or withdraw.’
He refused to say Assad was definitely to blame for the chemical attack and declined to back military action in the case of a proven chemical weapons attack in Syria.