Jeremy Corbyn faces calls to cancel appearance at Stop the War fundraising dinner following Syria air strikes vote

Tristram Hunt says Labour leader should think again about attending, branding organisation 'really disreputable'

Jeremy Corbyn (AFP/Getty)

Jeremy Corbyn is facing calls from senior MPs to cancel an appearance at a fundraising dinner hosted by the Stop the War Coalition this week, as internal strife continued to dog the Labour party in the wake of last week’s airstrikes vote.

Tristram Hunt, the former Shadow Education Secretary said that Mr Corbyn should think again about attending the event, branding Stop the War a “a really disreputable organisation”.

It came as the leader’s office dismissed reports of an imminent Shadow Cabinet reshuffle as “speculation”.

Some Shadow Cabinet members are understood to be preparing for a “revenge reshuffle” in the wake of the free vote on Syria, which saw 66 Labour MPs and 11 members of the Shadow Cabinet break with their leader’s position and back airstrikes.

Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle and chief whip Rosie Winterton were rumoured to be among those whose jobs are under threat. However, Lisa Nandy, the Shadow Environment Secretary and a leading figure on the left of the party said that a reshuffle would do nothing to stabilise the party.

She told BBC Radio 5’s Pienaar’s Politics that the Shadow Cabinet should continue to represent “every different strand of opinion” held by Labour MPs.

However, a new fault-line could open up this week as Mr Corbyn’s office insisted he would be keeping his plans to attend this Friday’s Stop the War event. Mr Corbyn previously served as the organisation’s chair before becoming Labour leader.

Many pro-airstrike MPs suspect Stop the War of a role in orchestrating abuse and threats made to them online and via email in the run-up and after the Syria vote.

Mr Hunt, speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, also criticised the organisation for a protest outside Labour’s London headquarters on Tuesday last week, which he said disrupted party activists who were canvassing voters ahead of the Oldham by-election. He also attacked the group for an article which appeared on its website the day after the Paris terror attacks which claimed France had “reaped the whirlwind” of Western support for extremists in the Middle East.

They picketed Labour party headquarters when we were trying to run a phone bank for the Oldham by-election. They were preventing the election of a labour member of parliament,” Mr Hunt said. “[There is also] their comments about how the French almost had it coming to them. They are a really disreputable organisation and I hope Jeremy would step back and not go to their fundraiser.

Stephen Doughty, a member of Hilary Benn’s shadow foreign affairs team, also urged Mr Corbyn not to attend the event.

But Lindsey German, Stop the War’s convenor, hit back, saying that Stop the War had not condoned any bullying or threats, adding that the protest at Labour HQ need not have led to the cancellation of any work inside the building.

“Some of us went and knocked on the door to hand in a petition, the woman who received the letter was perfectly pleasant, we were perfectly pleasant, then the demonstration moved on. If anything was cancelled, it didn’t need to be cancelled,” she said.

“I guess Tristram Hunt is making these criticisms to confuse the issue and try to minimise what is clearly a growing anti-war opinion in this country,” she said, pointing out that the majority of the Shadow Cabinet and Labour MPs voted against airstrikes.

She said she “very much” regretted that the “reap the whirlwind” had been posted to the website, adding that it did not reflect Stop the War’s official position, and indicating that steps would be taken to take greater control of content is posted on the organisation’s website.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair made a veiled criticism of Mr Corbyn’s stance on airstrikes. In an interview with the Sunday Times, The former Prime Minister said there was an “uneasy parallel with the 1930s”, comparing those who think Britain should step back from intervening against Isis to appeasers of fascism.

Mr Corbyn’s spokesman issued a statement firmly defending the Labour leader’s backing for Stop the War.

“The anti-war movement has been a vital democratic campaign, which organised the biggest demonstrations in British history and has repeatedly called it right over 14 years of disastrous wars in the wider Middle East,” the spokesman said. “Jeremy Corbyn rejects any form of abuse in politics from any quarter. But he will not accept attempts to portray campaigning, lobbying and protest as somehow beyond the pale. In fact it’s at the heart of democracy”.