Sinn Fein anger at Labour ‘friend’

A RIFT has opened up between Jeremy Corbyn and his former friends in Sinn Fein over the Irish ‘backstop’, with the nationalists angry that Mr Corbyn has not campaigned against a hard border in Ireland.

Mr Corbyn’s past connections to Sinn Fein were once so close, MI5 opened a file to examine his links to the IRA. But the Republicans are angry that Mr Corbyn’s long-standing opposition to the ‘corporatist’ EU has made him reluctant to push for the UK to stay in a customs union which would negate the need for a hard border, to which the nationalists are strongly opposed.

A Republican source said: ‘He is now being seen as anti-backstop. We know that Corbyn understands the politics of the North, but after the past few months many Republicans and nationalists believe he has betrayed them because no one in the British Labour Party has spoken up for us.

‘He knows the Tories have weaponised the backstop and is letting them get away with it.’