During his visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that his party’s support for the alliance was “unshakeable”, after being questioned on Labour's defence policy under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
Sir Keir served in Corbyn’s cabinet during the Islington North MP’s spell as party leader. Corbyn is a longstanding critic of the military alliance, although it never became Labour policy under him that the UK would withdraw.
During his tenure as Labour leader, Corbyn also suggested that NATO should change its policy direction and seek to de-escalate tensions with Russia.
Acknowledging that Corbyn had held a “very different” view to himself on UK relations with NATO in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir insisted that remaining in the shadow cabinet at the time and challenging Corbyn on defence matters was the right thing to do, rather than resigning in opposition.
Sir Keir said: “Jeremy Corbyn had a very different view, and he was wrong about that. I spoke out at the time that he was wrong about that.
“He was wrong about NATO; he was wrong in relation to the Salisbury poisoning incident where he didn’t respond appropriately.
“I stayed in the shadow cabinet and challenged that through my position. I am now leader of the Labour party and able to assert and carry an important message to NATO and to our allies from our party and our country about our unshakeable support.”
Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons
