An explosive investigative report from Britain’s Mail on Sunday has unearthed long-standing ties between a senior aide to the Labour Party’s embattled leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and terrorist organizations committed to the destruction of Israel.
The report details how Seumas Milne, the party’s head of strategy and communications, has for decades supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group which exercises complete political and military control over Gaza and aims to bring down the Jewish State.
Milne, the Mail claims, first met with members of the PLO on a trip to the Middle East when he was a student at Oxford University in 1977. In his writings, the former Guardian journalist has since expressed support for Palestinian terrorist organizations – the PLO and, more recently, Hamas.
The senior Labour aide, together with Corbyn, visited Hamas terror leaders during a 2010 trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Corbyn broke British parliamentary rules by failing to disclose the trip and later gushed over having had “a takeaway dinner” with Hamas chief Khaled Mashal in the parliament building in Gaza.
Asked about his senior aide’s links to the terrorist organization, which calls for the destruction of Israel by force, Corbyn said: “I don’t think it is appropriate for me to be quizzed on his individual views. He is a man of immense intellect and a scholar.”
Meanwhile, a prominent Jewish Labour MP, who spoke on condition for anonymity for fear of “death threats” by Corbyn supporters, told the Mail: “I think it’s evident to anyone who has been in the Parliamentary Labour Party for the past three years that Seumas Milne has an undue influence on events. It’s not just concerning – it’s appalling, especially over the issue of anti-Semitism.”
The investigation also revealed Milne’s extensive ties to organizations linked to the Kremlin. Shortly after pro-Russian forces illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Milne attended a conference session in Russia at which the keynote speaker was Russian President Vladimir Putin. All expenses were paid for by its organizers, a think-tank close to the Kremlin.
The fresh accusations against Milne have raised alarm bells in Britain’s security establishment. Sir Richard Dearlove, who led the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 from 1999 to 2004, told the Mail: “Anyone with his sort of background could not be let anywhere near classified information. It would be out of the question.
“That means Corbyn could not make the judgments and decisions a PM has to make unless he stopped consulting him,” Sir Richard asserted.
John Sipher, the former head of the CIA’s Russia division, told the newspaper he had “no doubt” a Corbyn government would hurt relations between Britain and the United States. “If there was a legitimate concern that Mr Corbyn would include Mr Milne in intelligence-related discussions, the US would likely share less of its most sensitive information,” he concluded.