Diane Abbott defends Jeremy Corbyn against extremist ‘smears’

Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP accuses political class of smearing Jeremy Corbyn

Hackney MP Diane Abbott has dismissed critics of Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn who allege he has links with extremists as seeking to show his “guilt by association”.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Abbott said the British political class was trying to “smear” Corbyn, the MP for Islington North, because it was “frozen with fear” that he might win the Labour leadership contest.

Abbott was responding to comments made by James Bloodworth, fellow guest on the Today programme and editor of the political blog Left Foot Forward.

Bloodworth had criticised Jeremy Corbyn for alleged links to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activists, including meeting representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah in London, and for appearing on Iranian state platforms such as Al Quds Day rallies and Press TV. Bloodworth did, however, make clear he did not suspect Corbyn of holding the views himself. “I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn has a racist or anti-Semitic bone in his body,” he said.

Ms Abbott, who is backing Corbyn for Labour leader, said that his critics were “plucking incidents out of a very long career”.

She said it was normal for a backbencher to “turn up at events and people are on the platform that you didn’t even know were going to be… It’s easy in retrospect to say ‘why was Jeremy photographed next to that person, why did Jeremy go to that rally?”

According to Abbott, anyone involved with “liberation movements” will inevitably come across characters who are “less than savoury.”

But James Bloodworth rejected Abbot’s claim that these groups were liberation movements, saying: “With the Iranian regime, groups like Hezbollah – these aren’t liberation groups. And to pretend that they are is completely delusional.”

Abbott defended Corbyn’s record in promoting conflict resolution, saying: “Jeremy always argued that the way to resolve the situation in Northern Ireland was through negotiation and that involved talking to the IRA. He was proved to be right.

She added: “On these big liberation issues, more often than not, Jeremy has been right and his critics have been wrong.”