Labour MPs tonight joined a pro-Assad rally alongside protesters with flags, hats and scarves bearing the face of the Syrian tyrant. Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon, Chris Williamson, Emma Dent Coad and Lloyd Russell-Moyle were among those present at this evening’s Stop the War demo at Parliament Square. Williamson told an audience waving pro-Corbyn placards and communist flags that there was no evidence for the Douma chemical attack and that Assad had no motive to carry it out. Echoing Kremlin talking points, Williamson said:
“Why would the Assad regime at this stage of the appalling conflict in Syria, where he’s virtually won the battle for Eastern Ghouta, launch a chemical weapons attack when it would be bound to bring on the wrath of the West? … The motive is questionable, the evidence – where is the evidence? It just isn’t there. And it’s no coincidence, it seems to me, that on the day before the OPCW inspectors were due to start their inspection, these air strikes took place. What is going on? There are very serious questions, it seems to me, that need to be answered.”
One Assad supporter told Guido said the Syrian leader had not done anything illegal and that it was the UK parliament that was acting illegally. He added his message to Jeremy Corbyn was “well done”.
Corbyn’s Labour…
Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti has made clear Labour would not act against the Assad regime even if OPCW inspectors found evidence of chemical weapons use in Douma. Appearing on the Today programme, Shami was asked what a Labour government would do if UN inspectors confirmed the position of Western governments. She refused to address the question before saying:
“You can’t use force under international law just to punish Syria for bad behaviour.”
John Woodcock weighed in:
Listened to the Today Programme. I wish my frontbench would spend even a fraction of the energy on Assad and Russia’s grotesque slaughter of civilians as they are on inventing new reasons to oppose targeted UK intervention to stop it.
— John Woodcock (@JWoodcockMP) 16 April 2018
Labour backbenchers will be worth watching this afternoon…
“I can only countenance involvement in Syria if there is @UN authority behind it” – Labour leader @jeremycorbyn tells #marr https://t.co/ylyDFV9zQ7 pic.twitter.com/A7r2a9mZ78
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 15, 2018
Corbyn continues to say intervention in Syria should only take place through the UN. Which Russia has repeatedly vetoed…
The Prime Minister @Theresa_May is holding a press conference on Syria. https://t.co/mwcHYPRfB5
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) April 14, 2018
The Prime Minister @theresa_may has made a statement on Syria: https://t.co/bBfYyowUIo pic.twitter.com/QlTeFXmOkt
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) April 14, 2018
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2018
The sickos who write Corbyn’s favourite paper have plumbed new depths by suggesting the Douma chemical attack was a set-up. The paper’s editorial calls Assad the “legitimate” ruler of Syria and suggests the children in the harrowing images from the scene were not really gassed. Remember they previously backed the slaughter in Aleppo.
“Today, the pretext for escalating Britain’s military involvement in Syria is that the Assad regime — the internationally recognised, legitimate and elected government in Damascus — is guilty of a poison gas attack on the citizens of Douma. Film of the aftermath, broadcast across the world in recent days, shows a troupe of very camera-conscious young men washing down the victims, all of whom are children, most of them looking more bewildered than wounded or incapacitated, and without a distressed parent or relative in sight.”
This is the paper Corbyn chooses to have delivered to his office. Does he agree?
