Corbyn refuses to condemn the IRA five times
JEREMY Corbyn was accused of ‘siding with Britain’s enemies’ last night after refusing five times to condemn the IRA.
The Labour leader was pressed repeatedly in a television interview to say he unequivocally opposed Republican terrorism.
But he refused to condemn the IRA directly, saying only that he opposed all bombing. And he blamed Britain for seeking a military solution in Ireland during the Troubles.
His comments enraged campaigners. Kenny Donald- son of Innocent Victims United said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn continues to treat the innocent victims and survivors of Provisional IRA terrorism with contempt.
‘He is the only politician our organisation has requested to meet with – on four occasions now – who refuses to even acknowledge correspondence.
‘Within the Labour Party are many honourable representatives who know and understand what terrorism is. But it is a source of huge
concern that their leader, who seeks to be our prime minister, is an apologist for terrorism.’
The TV interview prompted further scrutiny of the links between Republican terrorists and Mr Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
It also emerged that Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott told a pro-Republican journal in 1984 that ‘every defeat of the British state is a victory for all of us’.
Mr Corbyn’s disastrous interview was a major blow to Labour on a day when opinion polls put him closer to 10 Downing Street than at any point since he became party leader. With less than three weeks to go until the election:
The Conservative poll lead fell to single digits amid concern over the party’s social care plans;
Mr Corbyn refused to say he wanted immigration to fall;
Boris Johnson claimed the EU would have Mr Corbyn ‘for breakfast’ in Brexit talks;
Theresa May announced plans to strip knighthoods from wrongdoers.
Last week Mr McDonnell apologised for comments he made in 2003 at an event to honour IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.
It was reported at the weekend that MI5 opened a file on Mr Corbyn over his links to the Republican movement. It was also claimed that he petitioned for better treatment in prison for Hugh Doherty, a member of the Balcombe Street gang, which carried out a wave of attacks in England in the 1970s.
Yesterday the Sunday Times reported that Miss Abbott told a pro-Republican journal in 1984 that
‘Bloodshed, bombs and murders’
Ireland ‘is our struggle – every defeat of the British state is a victory.’
Interviewed yesterday by Sophy Ridge on Sky News, Mr Corbyn was asked repeatedly to ‘condemn unequivocally’ the IRA. First he said ‘bombing is wrong’ and denounced ‘all bombing’ without specifically mentioning the IRA.
Asked again if he would condemn the IRA without ‘equating it’ to other violence, he said: ‘No. I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about a peace process.’
When the question was repeated, the Labour leader added: ‘In the 1980s Britain was looking for a military solution in Ireland: it clearly was never going to work, ask anyone in the British Army at that time.’
Asked again, he said he ‘condemned all those that do bombing, all those on both sides’.
Finally, he said: ‘There were Loyalist bombs as well. I condemn all the bombing by both the Loyalists and the IRA.’ He insisted he wanted peace in Ireland and had worked hard for it.
Security minister Ben Wallace, who served in Northern Ireland with the Scots Guards, said: ‘People up and down the country will rightly be outraged that Jeremy Corbyn won’t unequivocally condemn the IRA for the bloodshed, bombs and brutal murders they inflicted on a generation of innocent people.
‘Jeremy Corbyn has spent a lifetime siding with Britain’s enemies, but he and his extreme views could be leading our country and representing it abroad.’ Mr Corbyn had a role in a hard-Left magazine that celebrated the 1984 Brighton Bombing, which killed a Tory MP and four others. He denied being general secretary of the London Labour Briefing when it published an editorial saying the attack showed ‘the British only sit up and take notice when they are bombed into it’.
Mr Corbyn admitted he was a reader and contributor to the magazine but denied being on the editorial board at the time of the bombing.
Yesterday’s TV interview also exposed Labour’s chaotic position on freezing working age benefits. Mr Corbyn said he would end the freeze because it’s ‘very, very unfair on those people in receipt of those benefits’.
But Mr McDonnell refused to say the freeze would end and the Labour election manifesto makes no mention of this.