Of all the plum jobs in the Commons, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (FASC) is the sweetest. It gives the incumbent a strong media platform, endless global jollies, and the chance to quiz David Lammy, which should be nothing if not entertaining…
When Emily Thornberry was brutally but hilariously binned from the incoming Labour Government, she launched a hardcore lobbying campaign to become FASC chairman. Lady Nugee ‘put the thumbscrews on’, said one Labour MP, pressuring her parliamentary colleagues to back her and help her recover from the embarrassment of not getting a front bench role. There’s a little local difficulty however, which is being talked about on the Labour benches…
Thornberry is best friends with scandal-wrecked Lord Alli. She lived on the same street as him in the 1990s, and is credited with actually introducing Alli to the party in the first place: ‘Lord Alli was encouraged to join Labour by his next-door neighbour, Emily Thornberry‘. As Guido revealed, Alli has some exotic foreign policy preferences, joining figures such as Jeremy Corbyn as one of the very few British parliamentarians to go into bat for – checks notes – Bashar al Assad. As he boasted himself in a Lords debate: “I have visited Syria on a number of occasions and held talks with President Assad on several.”
And which Shadow Foreign Secretary caused outrage in 2018 when they praised Assad’s “depth and breadth of support” which is greater “than is recognised in the west”? Only Lady Nugee herself. An eyebrow raising coincidence making Labour MPs nervous about her chairmanship…
Every Labour-briefed media profile of Waheed Alli spins that he is basically a harmless pile of money committed to one aim: a Labour victory. Starmer has repeatedly said Lord Alli got nothing in return for his support…
But the most cursory check of Alli’s parliamentary record (something not done by gaggles of Lobby journalists) reveals that he has strident and marginal views on one of the most controversial foreign policy issues of the last few years: Syria. He boasted in a House of Lords debate:
“I have visited Syria on a number of occasions and held talks with President Assad on several.”
Alli made the comments at the height of the Syrian civil war. He was speaking as the Cameron government was blocked from bombing President Assad’s Syria – after the tyrant unleashed chemical weapons on his own people. Simultaneously, Lord Alli was urging the West against taking military action in response:
“What happens when and if the Assad Government are removed? What is left behind? From my experience, it is soldiers with guns but no paymaster… I have listened to the list of things that this action is not intended to do—the same list that the Prime Minister gave in the other place. But that has not been the mood music being played by this Government over recent months. It is that mood music that frightens us all and it should be turned down.”
The next day’s tight Commons vote against action weakened the UK’s relationship with the US and France, as well as diminishing its moral authority on the international stage. The UK was reduced to a lame duck on the issue of Assad’s murderous dictatorship. On the Labour side, Corbyn would have been very pleased with Lord Alli’s position…
What was Alli doing meeting with bloodthirsty dictator Bashar al Assad on multiple occasions? In what capacity did he make his visits to Syria? Will Keir Starmer disown Lord Alli’s position on the Assad Government? Has Lord Alli made any representations to the Labour leadership over Syria? The Alli donor scandal has just taken a very unsettling turn…
UPDATE: Tories call on Starmer to distance himself from Alli and his position on Assad’s Government. A Conservative spokesperson said:
“Not only does this revelation raise some serious questions about Lord Alli’s relationship with President Assad’s regime, it puts Keir Starmer’s judgement even further in doubt.
“Starmer should disown Lord Alli’s position on the Assad Government immediately.”
Emily Thornberry is rightly under fire for talking up Assad’s popularity in a bizarre interview with Prospect magazine:
“There is an argument that if [President Bashar al-Assad] had been as overwhelmingly unpopular as the rebels told the west at the outset then he wouldn’t be there. I think there has been a depth and a breadth of support for Assad that has been underestimated.”
Prospect were certainly unimpressed, reporting: “Not once in our discussion on Syria is she critical of the Assad regime”. The Shadow Foreign Secretary rather gave the game away later on in the interview:
Assad may not get special blame, but others do. Foreign forces, she says, need to leave. That includes Britain, which is currently taking part in air-strikes against IS. “They’re not fighting for the sake of the Syrian people. Any of them.” She lists the countries involved. “UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Turkey, America, Britain—have I missed anyone?” She has. “Russians!” she adds, quickly.
Grim…
Emily Thornberry: I don’t accept the Russians are blocking the chemical weapons inspectors. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/k0kZh5kWc4
— Ben (@Jamin2g) April 19, 2018
Thornberry has been listening to Seumas again. The audience wasn’t impressed…
The Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence have expressed fury after a Labour MP and peer travelled to Syria earlier this month in defiance of government travel advice. Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Maurice Glasman travelled to Kobani on 4 April, with the Corbynista MP extraordinarily live-tweeting his location as the delegation moved through Syria. The first the FCO and MoD knew about the trip was when they received intelligence that a British MP and peer were in Syria. This sparked panic across the two departments, with officials furious that the lives of British armed forces would be put at risk if they had to be sent in should something go wrong.
Today I visited #kobani seeing support for displaced people (refugeees from #afrin), war graves of local & international fighters for democracy & socialism & met with local officials which all are gender balanced but worried about totatalairanism & aggression from Turkey pic.twitter.com/TKxNUjuWxK
— Lloyd Russell-Moyle (@lloyd_rm) April 4, 2018
The FCO clearly advises “against all travel to Syria” and warns “there is a very high threat of kidnapping throughout Syria”. A serving MP’s decision to defy this advice and then live-tweet his location has led some Whitehall officials to lobby for an investigation into the trip. Officials at the Ministry of Justice and Home Office are worried that the visit could legitimise others considering travelling to Syria, and have expressed concerns about the impact the trip could have on ongoing court cases involving other Britons who have returned from the country.
A government source said: “This was an utterly reckless act that could have led to our armed forces being put in danger had they been kidnapped. It is mind-numbingly stupid given the political climate and could have severe consequences in terms of ongoing court cases over here.”
A second government source said: “Travel advice is very clear – by going to a dangerous region you are not only putting yourself at risk but also the individuals who would have to take part in a rescue operation. It’s incredibly stupid of an MP to do this and shows a real lack of judgement.”
Russell-Moyle wrote up his experience in Syria for the far-left website Evolve Politics and spoke about it at the Stop the War rally last night. Taking the Corbynista delusion on Syria to new stupid extremes…
UPDATE: Statement from Russell-Moyle:
“I did inform the FCO before I departed, informing them of our movements. I met with UK Ambassador in Iraq, the UK Consul-General in Erbil before & with him on the day we returned to debrief. We received security protection form Gov. of Kurdish Iraq and Northern Syrian Government.”
Yet the first the FCO and MoD heard about the trip was while he was there…
This was only a non-substantive vote on the motion that the House had heard the situation on Syria, but nonetheless a resounding win for the government after Labour MPs were sent home early. Which just about sums up parliament’s view on Corbyn’s position – the Labour leader humiliated…
