What would prime minister Corbyn have done about Putin?

Jeremy Corbyn’s question in the House of Commons this week filled me with the relief of catastrophe averted. Addressing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the former Labour leader and Morning Star columnist said:

'Would he be prepared to countenance, if the Russians pulled back, any reduction in the Nato presence on the border as well in order to bring about a longer-term secure peace in the region?'

In reply, with admirable restraint, Wallace condescended to state the obvious. 'We didn't put 165,000 combat troops on the edge of a sovereign country and hold a gun to the head of a democratically elected government,' he pointed out.

The catastrophe of war in Ukraine may be unavoidable. But thanks to the common sense and decency of the British electorate, the catastrophe of a pro-Putin Corbyn government never came to pass.

Between 2015 and 2019, the egregiousness of the former Labour leader’s position on Nato and Russia was overshadowed only by his views on Israel and the Palestinians. How can we forget the sound of millions of jaws hitting the floor as he demanded that the poison used against the Skripals in Salisbury be analysed by the Russians before Britain pointed fingers at the Kremlin? Yet that clap of jaws on floors rang in our ears once again this week when Corbyn and his fellow travellers from the Stop the War coalition signed an open letter blaming Britain – yes Britain – for the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine.

'The policies of the British government (have) poured oil on the fire throughout this episode,' the letter said. 'The British government has talked up the threat of war continually, to the point where the Ukraine government has asked it to stop.'

Clearly, this was untrue. But it made no difference. In the eyes of the hard left, there is no evil in the world that cannot be pinned to the Union Flag or the Stars and Stripes, and facts that run to the contrary are invisible.

No matter that it was Putin who waged war on Georgia, invaded Crimea, and massed battle-ready troops along the Ukrainian border. As Ben Wallace delivered his measured yet devastating retort across the floor of the House, the former Labour leader was visibly unmoved. Facts be damned. The Corbyn ideology stated that the West is to blame for everything; and to Corbyn, the ideology is all.

As I watched the scenes unfold, my mind was cast back to the evening of 12 December 2019, when the British electorate gave its damning, comprehensive verdict on the Corbyn project. A particularly delicious moment came with the buzz of my phone shortly after the exit polls were announced.

'Congratulations,' the message read. 'I’m happy, not for the UK, but because Hamas are not happy now. Fuckers.' It had come from a Palestinian friend who lives under the Hamas regime in Gaza. Decent Palestinians – who stood as best they could against Corbyn’s murderous 'friends' – were rejoicing in the Labour leader’s defeat. Once and for all, it exposed the true moral degradation of Magic Grandpa. Ha.

This week, Ukrainians in Britain are sharing in the relief that Corbyn sits in the darkening twilight of the back benches, stripped of the Labour whip. Could you imagine if he was perched in Number 10, directing British foreign policy in that rigid, woolly and stuttering manner? His fingers on our nuclear codes? In his fight against democracy, Putin would have an ally of unprecedented value. The consequences hardly bear thinking about.

As the late Rabbi Lord Sacks used to say, what begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews. But this time, happily, things worked out differently. What began with the Jews ended at the ballot box. Thank heavens – and the British public – for that.