Whenever I start to assume positively about Sir Keir Starmer, I often obtain a jolt again into actuality once I keep in mind that he was solely too pleased to serve for 3 years as a number one mild in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cupboard, writes Iain Dale. Not solely that, however he campaigned to make him prime minister.
We had a fortunate escape. On Monday, Jezza rose from the backest of backbenches and appeared to intimate that the Ukraine disaster was all of the West’s fault. Extra particularly, he requested Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, if Nato would withdraw troops “from the border” (of the place?) if Russia did the identical – as if Vladimir Putin’s calls for have been in any manner justified.
Corbyn was rightly given quick shrift by Wallace. Corbyn’s extremist place is similar as that adopted by the Cease the Battle Coalition, which he chairs. They appear to purchase into the Nato encirclement fantasy propagated by the Kremlin.
Even within the assertion the group issued yesterday, which known as on Russia to withdraw troops from japanese Ukraine, it couldn’t assist blaming the battle partially on “the growth of Nato and US hegemony on the expense of different international locations”. Britain, it stated bizarrely, had performed a “provocative position”.