Labour left breaks with Jeremy Corbyn over
sending weapons to Ukraine
John McDonnell among former shadow cabinet members
contradicting pacifist message
Toby Helm
Political editor
Sun 26 Feb
2023 09.00 GMT
Senior
Labour MPs on the left of the party are putting themselves at odds with former
leader Jeremy Corbyn over the war in Ukraine by calling on the Ministry of
Defence to do more to arm Kyiv against the Russians.
This
weekend the MP for Norwich South, Clive Lewis, a former territorial army
officer and shadow defence secretary under Corbyn, questioned why the MoD was
selling used Apache helicopters on the open market rather than giving them to
the Ukrainians “in their hour of need”.
“Given that
we have provided export licences for weapons to regimes with poor human rights
records, do we not have an obligation to provide Ukraine with the military
equipment it needs to defend its democracy?” Lewis asked.
His
intervention comes days after John McDonnell, former shadow chancellor and a
close political ally of Corbyn, also wrote in support of arming Ukraine, arguing
that while he respected the pacifist position, he felt it would not deliver
peace but rather risk defeat for Kyiv by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
“What is
certain is that a refusal to provide the weapons the Ukrainians need ... means
that the chances of the Russian invasion succeeding are significantly
increased,” McDonnell wrote in an article on Labour Hub website, marking a year
since the Russian invasion.
Corbyn, by
contrast, has urged western countries to stop arming Ukraine, insisting that
providing weapons will only prolong the conflict. “Pouring arms in isn’t going
to bring about a solution; it’s only going to prolong and exaggerate this war,”
Corbyn said in an interview with a Beirut-based TV channel last August. “We
might be in for years and years of war in Ukraine.”
He added:
“What I find disappointing is that hardly any of the world’s leaders use the
word peace; they always use the language of more war, and more bellicose war.
“This war
is disastrous for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia, and for the
safety and security of the whole world, and therefore there has to be much more
effort put into peace.”
Earlier
this month, on a surprise visit to the UK, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr
Zelenskiy, made an emotional appeal to for Ukraine to be supplied with fighter
jets, forcing Rishi Sunak to order a defence ministry review into whether the
request could be met.
Lewis’s
move comes after the UK Defence Equipment Sales Authority placed an advert
online for an undisclosed number of Apache AH1 helicopters, which it says are
able to “operate in all weathers, day or night” and are designed to carry a mix
of weapons.
However, a
spokesperson for the MOD said Lewis’s call was based on “out-of-date”
information. “We are not selling any Apache helicopters. In fact, we are
upgrading 50 Mk1 aircraft as part of the AH-64E programme and the rest of the
fleet remain in service with the Army.”
Lewis is a
backer of the UK-based Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, which seeks to organise and
provide information in support of the Ukrainian labour movement.
Another key
advocate is the Labour MP for Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome.
She
recently wrote: “To support arming Ukraine isn’t to oppose the idea of peace
talks. The question is what position Ukraine would enter them from. It’s right
to avoid escalation into a direct conflict between Moscow and Nato. However,
arming the resistance is a way to allow Ukraine to negotiate from a position of
strength, not surrender.”
On Saturday
night the MoD said the advert for Apache helicopters had been removed.
Whittome
and McDonnell will join Nobel prize-winning human rights defender, Oleksandra
Matviychuk, at a Solidarity with Ukraine conference hosted by Conflict and
Civicness Research Group at the London School of Economics on 11 March.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário