Jeremy Corbyn is facing fresh pressure over his stance on the Salisbury poisoning after another shadow Cabinet minister warned there can be ‘no ifs no buts’ about holding Russia to account.
The Labour leader has been hit with a mounting revolt from his own side over his failure to condemn Moscow following the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
He defied his critics today by again refusing to lay the blame for the attack at the door of Vladimir Putin – instead suggesting the mafia might be behind the use of military-grade nerve agent.
Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer heaped pressure on Mr Corbyn by insisting the PM had drawn the ‘right conclusion’ about Russia’s culpability
Jeremy Corbyn was heavily criticised by Labour MPs after he failed to condemn the Kremlin over the Salisbury spy poisoning
But shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer heaped pressure on Mr Corbyn by insisting the PM had drawn the ‘right conclusion’ about Russia’s culpability.
‘The prime minister asked serious questions of Russia earlier this week … and no answers have been given,’ Sir Keir said on BBC Question Time.
‘And that led her to the conclusion that there is no alternative explanation, other than that responsibility lies with Russia.
‘As you will have seen Germany, France and the U.S. have joined her in that conclusion.
‘And that is the right conclusion. And for that reason I think it’s very important that we support the action the prime minister laid out on Wednesday as a response to this unprovoked attack.’
He added: ‘It needs to be called out with no ifs and no buts, and we need strong action.’
Mr Corbyn suffered another blow with a poll suggesting the public rejects his handling of the crisis – and is happy with Mrs May’s response.
YouGov research for The Times found some 75 per cent of people believed that Russia was responsible for the attempted murders, while just 5 per cent thought they were not.
Support for Tories was up one point on 42 per cent, while Labour was down four on 39 per cent.
Some 53 per cent approved of Mrs May’s handling, while 23 per cent said she had performed badly.
Just 18 per cent thought Mr Corbyn had fared well and 39 per cent thought he had done badly.
YouGov interviewed 1,986 adults online on Wednesday and Thursday.
Jeremy Corbyn pictured with his communications chief Seumus Milne, who has downplayed the number of people imprisoned under Stalin’s murderous rule
On BBC Question Time, Mr Starmer warned there can be ‘no ifs no buts’ about holding Russia to account
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said Mr Corbyn’s latest intervention in a Guardian article ‘hasn’t helped to clarify the situation’.
‘This has to be a time where we stand together with the Government, shoulder to shoulder, and with our Nato allies, sending a very clear message to Russia,’ Mr Kinnock told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He rejected Mr Corbyn’s comparison with the run-up to the Iraq War, saying ‘that sort of drift to conflict is not on the agenda at all’.
‘I think we have got a fundamental need for a debate in our party about about our worldview,’ said Mr Kinnock.
‘There are those of us who clearly feel that Nato and the EU and standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies… are fundamentally a force for good and those alliances are the fundamental piece of architecture that we have to be a part of, and there are others in our party who take another view.
‘I think Jeremy has never made any secret of his views on the role of Nato in the world and on the EU, to a large extent, as well.’
In his Guardian article, Mr Corbyn warned against a ‘McCarthyite intolerance of dissent’ over relations with Russia.
Confirming Labour’s support for Mrs May’s actions, Mr Corbyn said: ‘We agree with the Government’s action in relation to Russian diplomats.’
But he added: ‘Measures to tackle the oligarchs and their loot would have a far greater impact on Russia’s elite than limited tit-for-tat expulsions.’
Mr Corbyn said that Mrs May was right on Monday to identify two possibilities for the source of the nerve agent – either Russia authorised the attack or had lost control of the Novichok substance.
‘If the latter, a connection to Russian mafia-like groups that have been allowed to gain a toehold in Britain cannot be excluded,’ he said.
Despite Mrs May’s statement on Wednesday that ‘there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable’, Mr Corbyn insisted that the PM had still ‘ruled out neither option’.