Jeremy Corbyn has lost any lingering chance of standing again as a Labour candidate after his attack on Nato, Keir Starmer has suggested.
The former party leader was exiled for refusing to retract his insistence that the extent of antisemitism in Labour during the years he led it had been “dramatically overstated”.
But he has now clashed with the current leadership by suggesting military alliances such as Nato can build up “greater danger” in the world and should ultimately be disbanded.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many of his left-wing Labour allies endorsed a Stop The War Coalition statement that condemned “Nato Expansion” as a cause of the conflict.
Mr Corbyn’s Labour membership was restored in 2020, but not the party whip – without which he cannot be the candidate in his Islington North seat at the next general election.
Asked about the former leader’s views on Nato, Sir Keir told the BBC: “It is very difficult to see how that situation can now be resolved.
“He lost the whip because of his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission in relation to antisemitism, but I made it very clear – the first thing I said – as party leader was that I was going to tear out antisemitism by its roots in our party.
“I’ve also made it clear that our position in the Labour Party is not to accept the false equivalence between Russian aggression and the acts of Nato.”
Asked if that meant he is against Mr Corbyn returning as a Labour MP, Sir Keir replied: “I’m very clear on my positions on those two issues, very clear.”
Earlier this month, Mr Corbyn criticised both Boris Johnson and Joe Biden for not doing enough to encourage “dialogue and peace”, as the Ukraine war drags on.
Asked whether he still believed Nato should be disbanded, he told Times Radio: “I would want to see a world where we start to ultimately disband all military alliances.
“The issue has to be, what’s the best way of bringing about peace in the future? Is it by more alliances? Is it by more military build-up? Or is it by stopping the war in Ukraine and the other wars.”
The former leader added: “And ask yourself the question, do military alliances bring peace? Or do they actually encourage each other and build up to a greater danger?
“I don’t blame Nato for the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine. What I say is look at the thing historically, and look at the process that could happen at the end of the Ukraine war.”
Mr Corbyn has founded the Peace and Justice Project, a campaign group that some believe he could convert into a political party – a banner under which he could run.
Asked whether he could rule out doing so, he replied: “I don’t know what the future is going to bring.”
