Corbyn election aide is former communist who backed N Korea
Tory move to narrow the ethnic pay gap
JEREMY CORBYN’S new election campaign chief is a former member of the British communist party who has praised North Korea and Stalin and once called Isil’s victories a “series of sudden and stunning triumphs”.
Andrew Murray, the right-hand man of Unite chief Len Mccluskey, was brought in to run Labour’s campaign last week having only joined the party in December. In a series of articles and speeches he has voiced support for communist regimes around the world, spoken of his opposition to Western intervention in Iraq and Syria and made anti-israel remarks.
Mr Corbyn praised his “enormous abilities” yesterday and claimed Mr Murray is “a democratic socialist and member of the Labour Party like me”.
At a 2003 communist party meeting Mr Murray said: “Our party has already made its basic position of solidarity with People’s Korea clear.” Writing in the Morning Star in 2014, Mr Murray said: “The sudden and stunning military triumphs of the Isil fighters is both the consequence and the collapse of the policy launched with the Anglo-us aggression against Iraq in 2003.”
A former chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, in a 2012 speech to that organisation he expressed “solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people in Gaza” and added: “Palestine stands today undefeated and unbowed despite the bloody aggression by one of the greatest military powers on earth.”
Asked about Mr Murray’s new role, Mr Corbyn said: “He is a person of enormous abilities and professionalism and is the head of staff of Unite the union. To manage a very large union and a large number of staff takes special skills and Andrew has them.”
He was introduced by Mr Corbyn at a speech in 2015 in which he downplayed the importance of the Paris terror attacks that left more than 130 dead, saying: “The barbarism we condemn in Paris is minute compared to the barbarism wrought by imperialism across the planet in the last 13 years.”
His first day at party HQ on Friday followed the leak of the party’s hardleft election manifesto and also came as Diane Abbott was revealed to have signed a petition calling for the abolition of MI5 and Special Branch in 1989, branding them “conspiratorial groups”.
A Labour source said there are fears that Mr Corbyn is seeking to shore up the party’s structures with his supporters to stave off a leadership challenge after next month’s election.
Speaking in 2015 Mr Murray claimed there would be an outcry if he joined Labour because of his far-left views.
He was a communist party member until five months ago and has previously said communism represents “a society worth working towards”.
Another Labour source said: “Murray hasn’t even been a member for a year, he is ineligible to be a councillor, by-election candidate or general election candidate but is somehow running Labour’s election campaign.
“I’m not sure why, since he believes in revolutions not elections.” Theresa May has vowed to tackle racial pay disparities by making companies publish how much different ethnic groups are paid. Businesses will be required to publish details of the gap between pay levels for staff of different ethnic backgrounds. The proposal will be in the Conservative manifesto. She said: “The fact that different ethnic groups are being paid less for doing the same jobs is an injustice which cannot be allowed in 21st-century Britain.”