Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers has tweeted an Alex Jones Show Infowars video featuring Paul Joseph Watson which suggests the chemical attack on Douma was not carried out by the Assad regime. He tagged his brother Jeremy in the tweet. Piers also tweeted:

“HAHA the #Syria #ChemicalWeaponsAttack was #FAKE.”

PJW should really get Piers on his show…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no874yC1ovs

Speaking at the launch of Labour’s London election campaign, Corbyn refused to blame the Assad regime for the gas attack in Douma, instead calling on “all parties to cooperate with the UN… so we can find out exactly who delivered that chemical weapon”. Just as he refused to condemn Assad for the chemical attack at Khan Sheikhoun last year. Compare and contrast with when Russia accused Syrian rebels of using chemical weapons in 2013. Then, Corbyn immediately went on Russia Today to endorse the Kremlin line… 

Last night’s statement from a Labour “spokesperson” on the Douma gas attack – no wonder no one wanted to put their name to it – was a textbook case of Corbynista equivocation in the face of evil committed by a regime opposed by the West. Corbyn’s record on Syria speaks for itself.

He accepted a free trip to meet Assad paid for by a Palestinian group which blames Jews for the Holocaust, posing with the Syrian leader alongside Jenny Tonge, and writing afterwards that the junket had shown him evidence that “the Israeli tail wags the US dog”.

He was the chair of Stop the War when they compared Assad to Churchill and repeatedly promoted Assad apologists, and he continued to back the group when they were condemned by Peter Tatchell for silencing victims of the Assad regime, and accused by Syria Solidarity UK of tacitly supporting Assad.

Following the Khan Sheikhoun gas attack, Corbyn refused to blame Assad despite Britain, the US and France all agreeing there was no doubt the regime carried it out. He did however appear on Russia Today to immediately endorse Russian reports of Syrian rebels using chemical weapons. He called for an “independent UN investigation“. When such an investigation later found the Assad regime responsible, Corbyn said nothing.

He received a briefing from Declan Hayes, a notorious Assad apologist who has denied that the regime has used chemical weapons. He dined with Marcus Papadopoulos, who claimed “there was no massacre at Aleppo“.

Corbyn’s chief aide Seumas Milne has repeatedly apologised for the Assad regime, writing that warnings of chemical attacks by Assad were a “reprise of the falsehood that paved the way for the invasion of Iraq”, praising Russian intervention in Syria as a “check to unbridled US power” and criticising Nato for working against the Assad regime.

Milne’s deputy in the leader’s office Steve Howell is even worse – he’s repeatedly openly sided with Assad and accused the West of spinning the Aleppo slaughter.

Corbyn’s favourite newspaper, the communist Morning Star, actually backed Assad’s slaughter in Aleppo as “providing aerial support to troops fighting to drive extremists out”.

Corbyn famously said that “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. On Syria he doesn’t even pretend to be neutral.

Following Guido’s story yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn gets a lot of criticism in today’s papers for his links to an Assad-supporting genocide denier. Of course it should come as no surprise that the Labour leader’s office is sympathetic to people with such views. Take Steve Howell, Corbyn’s deputy director of strategy and comms, one of his most senior aides (and a former colleague of Seumas Milne at the Stalinist newspaper Straight Left). His Twitter feed is full of tweets promoting Assadists, siding with Assad and Putin, accusing Western media of spinning the Aleppo slaughter, blaming Ukraine on the West, defending Russia Today, and even spinning Russian hacking of the US election in support of Putin.

These views are commonplace at the very top of Corbyn’s Labour…

Jeremy Corbyn: We “don’t need unilateral action” over Syria. Should instead work towards political settlement via UNhttps://t.co/eQ73hAyCLS pic.twitter.com/8SQEkewIgF

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 27, 2017

Jeremy Corbyn tells the BBC that inspectors need “space” to “make sure we know who did that terrible chemical weapons attack” in Syria. Britain, America and France all say there is no doubt the Assad regime carried out the attack. Corbyn doesn’t seem so sure…

Bilaterale del Segretario di Stato Rex #Tillerson con il Ministro degli Esteri britannico, Boris #Johnson a margine del #G7 Esteri a #Lucca. pic.twitter.com/yRqQnaqQuQ

— Ambasciata U.S.A. (@AmbasciataUSA) 10 April 2017

The G7 meeting of foreign ministers is underway in the picturesque Italian city of Lucca, Tuscany. Boris Johnson – under fire all weekend for a decision to cancel a planned trip to Moscow – has already met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the margins of the meeting. Earlier BoJo name-checked Rex, saying Britain would “support… efforts by Rex Tillerson to try to move the process forward”…