Corbyn’s support sparks Labour row

A LABOUR frontbencher has called on the party to ‘stand with victims of sexual crime’ as Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott faced criticism for backing Julian Assange.

The WikiLeaks founder, 47, should be extradited to Sweden to face a rape allegation, declared shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: ‘The women that have been allegedly assaulted have been without access to justice and we’ve got to stand with victims of sexual crime. He needs to be in a Swedish court answering the allegations.’

Mr Corbyn and Miss Abbott, the shadow home secretary, have claimed that Assange’s arrest last week after seven years holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy was politically motivated.

‘We all know what this is about – it’s not the rape charges,’ Miss Abbott told the BBC. ‘It’s all about WikiLeaks.’

Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson welcomed the Labour chief’s support. She told Sophy Ridge: ‘It’s right and correct that Jeremy Corbyn said what he said.’

But on the same show Tory energy minister Claire Perry said it was ‘absolutely’ right that Assange face justice in Sweden.

The WikiLeaks founder, whose website began publishing thousands of classified United States documents in 2010, denies raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in Sweden.

He and his supporters claim the charges are a pretext to get him extradited to America to face espionage charges.

Due to legal time limits, the assault allegation was dropped in 2017. But the rape accusation can be re-opened any time before August 2020, and Swedish prosecutors now have to decide whether to renew their extradition request.