Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, has labelled Jeremy Corbyn a threat to national security insisting he is far from being fit to occupy 10 Downing Street.
Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, he said that the Labour leader should never be allowed to access sensitive classified information given his past political background.
“Do not even think of taking the risk of handing this politician the keys to No 10", the former long-serving spy warned.
“Corbyn, [Andrew] Murray [a former member of the Communist party] and [Seumas] Milne [who supports the Palestinian cause] have at times each denigrated their own country and embraced the interests of its enemies and opponents [They] are compromised by their past. The political company they have kept has been authoritatively documented", Dearlove noted. He also took a swipe at the Labour leader for “once preferring East Germany’s political and economic model of government".
Sir Richard stressed that none of the aforementioned figures would “ever have been allowed to work in our national security agencies because they would have been disqualified” due to a failure to pass their security vetting.
“As a democratically elected leader he would bypass the vetting procedures. Corbyn as prime minister, together with his current advisers, could be a present danger to our country...", Dearlove stressed, before summing up:
“When vital national security interests are at stake, the political facts of his past cannot be airbrushed out. Politicians should have to live with their political record, and Corbyn’s, whatever political views he may claim to hold today, rules him out as someone suitable to be our prime minister".
Competing Manifestos
The explosive comments come as Boris Johnson unveiled a series of Tory policies from the party’s manifesto, including a pledge not to raise income taxes, VAT, and National Insurance in the next Parliament season.
He also took a dig at Corbyn’s political manifesto calling it a “dead cat” as it stipulates higher taxes and no exact Brexit plan amid suggestions of a second referendum. The latter was thrown into the limelight after the opposition leader noted he would prefer to stay “neutral” on the matter, attracting criticism from Johnson and the general public during the BBC’s Question Time.
Johnson also promised that his “early Christmas present to the nation” would save families from “the seemingly unending Brexit boxset drama”, voicing an intention to swiftly pass his EU-approved deal through the Commons if he wins a majority on 12 December.
The first televised debate between the leaders of Britain’s two major camps took place on Tuesday on ITV, with the politicians clashing on the NHS, Brexit deal, deceased Jeffrey Epstein, and the monarchy, now engulfed in an Epstein-related scandal. The second attempt to set up a live debate this Sunday suffered a fiasco, though, after the Johnson team failed to confirm the prime minister’s participation.
Per a recent YouGov poll, Johnson and Corbyn are running nearly neck-and-neck in the race, with the Tory head receiving 51 percent of votes, while the opposition leader is trailing about 2 percent behind.