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Jeremy Corbyn refused six times today to condemn the IRA.

Grilled on Sky News about his history of public appearances with prominent Irish republicans, the Labour leader said he condemned all bombings during the Troubles, but stopped short of explicitly condemning the IRA.

The uncomfortable Sky News interview with Sophy Ridge is set to reignite criticism of Mr Corbyn’s role in backing high-profile nationalists like the late Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams.

He insisted his links were necessary to help forge peace in Northern Ireland.

Asked if he could condemn unequivocally the IRA, Mr Corbyn said: “Bombing is wrong, of course all bombing is wrong and of course I condemn it.”

(Image: PA)

Ms Ridge pointed out: “But you’re condemning all bombing there, can you condemn the IRA without equating it to...?”

Mr Corbyn interrupted her to say: “No, I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about a peace process.

“In the 1980s Britain was looking for a military solution in Ireland.

"It clearly was never going to work. Ask anyone in the British army at that time.

“Therefore you have to seek a peace process. You condemn the violence of those that laid bombs that killed large of numbers of innocent people and I do.”

Pressed to condemn the IRA, the Labour chief said: “I’ve just condemned all those that did bombing, all those, all those on both sides that laid bombs.”

Asked again to condemn the IRA without comparing it to the deaths caused by British security services, Mr Corbyn said: “And there were loyalist bombs as well, which you haven’t mentioned.

(Image: PA)

“I condemn all the bombing by the both loyalists and the IRA.”

Security Minister Ben Wallace, who served in Northern Ireland as an officer with the Scots Guards said: “People up and down the country will rightly be outraged that Jeremy Corbyn won’t unequivocally condemn the IRA for the bloodshed, bombs and brutal murders they inflicted on a generation of innocent people.

“ Jeremy Corbyn has spent a lifetime siding with Britain’s enemies,but he and his extreme views could be leading our country and representing it abroad – negotiating with 27 EU countries in just over two weeks’ time, and it’s the British people who will pay for this for generations.

“We want a Prime Minister, not a leader of a protest movement who has opposed nearly every measure to keep this country safe in the last thirty years.

(Image: Peter Macdiarmid/LNP)

"The only way to get the strong leadership our country needs through Brexit and beyond is to vote for Theresa May and her Conservative team on June 8.”

The latest row comes as Labour’s internal civil war over Trident is set to intensify tomorrow when the Shadow Defence Secretary addresses a key conference.

Nia Griffith speaks to the Royal United Services Institute think-tank after a stand-off with Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry over Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

Ms Thornberry again cast doubt on Labour’s commitment to the weapons system over the weekend, forcing Ms Griffith to hit back: “With all due respect, Emily is not the shadow defence secretary. I am.”