Tough-talking Keir Starmer should urge unions and his MPs to drop support from Stop The War’s ‘Nato-blaming campaign’, says Defence Minister
- Labour leader Keir Starmer urged Johnson to take stronger action against Putin
- But PM hit back and pointed to Labour MPs who had signed letter ‘blaming Nato’
- Keir served alongside signatories during four years in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet
Keir Starmer yesterday urged Boris Johnson to impose tougher sanctions on warmongering President Putin, take his propaganda station off the airwaves and crack down on foreign donations to British politics.
But the Prime Minister hit back, pointing out that more than a dozen members of the Labour leader’s party have sided with the Kremlin rather than the Western military alliance over Ukraine.
Mr Johnson told the Commons, as he defended his sanctions package targeting banks and oligarchs: ‘It is strong and it will be very strong.
Keir Starmer (pictured) urged Boris Johnson to impose tougher sanctions on Putin, take his propaganda station off the airwaves and crack down on foreign donations to British politics
A letter by the Stop the War Coalition criticising Nato’s record has been signed by 11 serving Labour MPs – including former leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) – and three Labour peers
‘Something that would also be strong would be to take the whip away from the 14 Labour Members who say that the aggressor in Ukraine is Nato. That would be a strong thing to do.’
A letter by the Stop the War Coalition criticising Nato’s record has been signed by 11 serving Labour MPs, two of whom now sit as independents – including former leader Jeremy Corbyn – as well as three Labour peers.
Defence Minister James Heappey told the Mail: ‘Sir Keir Starmer has made clear he supports the Government’s approach.
‘I hope he’ll be able to persuade his MPs and affiliated unions to remove their support from Stop The War’s Nato-blaming campaign.’
Tory MP Stuart Anderson – who sits on the defence select committee – added: ‘This a disgrace to the nation.
‘I served in Bosnia and Kosovo and some of my friends didn’t return. Nato is a defensive alliance and anyone who says otherwise is fuelling dangerous rhetoric.’
Sir Keir served alongside several of the signatories during four years in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and Red Wall MP Antony Higginbotham noted they include those the Labour MP ‘thought fit to campaign for to become Prime Minister, Home Secretary and Chancellor’.
The youth wing of the Labour Party has taken the same anti-West line as the Corbynite MPs, writing on Twitter: ‘We are especially concerned to see Keir Starmer pushing not only for further engagement with Nato, but celebrating it while attacking Stop The War and other pro-peace activists.’
Meanwhile, it emerged that Sir Keir’s shadow foreign secretary, who this week backed his call for state-owned Russia Today to lose its UK broadcasting licence, has previously been paid thousands of pounds to appear on its shows.
David Lammy received £1,000 from a production company for each of two appearances he made on the satirical programme Sam Delaney’s News Thing, Parliamentary records from 2016 show.
Mr Lammy told BBC Breakfast: ‘It’s clearly engaged in disinformation and misinformation.
‘Why, when you scroll through the channels on satellite TV, is it still up?’ Last night a Tory source said: ‘This is the height of hypocrisy.’
Other Labour MPs were regular guests on the channel before being warned to stay away in the aftermath of the poisoning of an ex- spy by Russian military intelligence officers. Sir Keir’s head of strategy Deborah Mattinson appeared on the channel too, in 2019.
David Lammy (pictured) received £1,000 from a production company for each of two appearances he made on the satirical programme Sam Delaney’s News Thing for Russia Today
Meanwhile Labour peer Lord Mandelson, who has been advising Sir Keir, has had business links with Russia.
He spent four years as a non-executive director of Russian defence conglomerate Sistema, and once co-signed a letter to Mr Putin asking him for help in a legal dispute.
He was pictured on stage at the St Petersburg Economic Forum in 2014 near to Putin adviser Sergei Glazyev, who had been hit with a US and EU travel ban and asset freeze earlier that year after being accused of ‘publicly calling for the annexation of Crimea’.
However, in his summit speech, Lord Mandelson opposed the annexation and warned Russia would suffer financially as a result of sanctions.
The Russia ‘practice lead’ of Lord Mandelson’s advisory firm Global Counsel was also employed for almost ten years at state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
However, it is understood that the firm does not work for any Russian state-owned companies or oligarchs.
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