Keir Starmer has signalled that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is unlikely to be readmitted to the parliamentary party following his call to disband Nato.
Corbyn last week suggested military alliances like Nato could build up “greater danger” in the world and should ultimately be disbanded.
Corbyn lost the Labour whip over his response to the Equalities watchdog’s report into antisemitism in the party.
Although he was reinstated as a Labour member after a suspension, Starmer has refused to readmit him to the parliamentary party.
The former Labour leader, a long-standing critic of Nato, told Times Radio last week: “I would want to see a world where we start to ultimately disband all military alliances.”
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme whether Corbyn could be restored as a Labour MP following the comments, Starmer said: “It is very difficult to see how that situation can now be resolved.”
“He lost the whip because of his response to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in relation to antisemitism but I made it very clear, the first thing I said as party leader was that I was going to tear out antisemitism by its roots in our party.”
“I’ve also made it clear that our position in the Labour Party is not to accept the false equivalence between Russian aggression and the acts of Nato.”
Told that it sounded as if he was against Corbyn returning as a Labour MP, Starmer replied: “I’m very clear on my positions on those two issues, very clear.”
In his BBC interview Starmer said for millions of people the rising cost of living is a more important issue than partygate but that Boris Johnson has himself to blame for the focus on the issue.
He said: “I don’t think anybody could accuse me of not concentrating on the cost of living in PMQs in the past month after month after month.
He added: "But why are we talking about this? Answer: because the Prime Minister has broken the rules he made, and been fined by the police for doing it."
“No Prime Minister in the history of our country has even been in that position before. So he’s brought this on himself. His moral authority, his authority to lead, is shot through and his own side have now had enough of defending him.”
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