Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership credentials come under renewed attack today after it emerged that he branded the Falklands War a ‘Tory plot’ in which ‘unemployed men’ were sent to die

Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership credentials come under renewed attack today after it emerged that he branded the Falklands War a ‘Tory plot’ in which ‘unemployed men’ were sent to die.

Mr Corbyn, the favourite to take over as Labour’s leader, said Britain was wrong to send a taskforce to liberate the UK overseas territory after Argentina’s invasion in 1982.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that he refused to offer ‘loyal support’ for British troops as they were fighting to reclaim the islands, and claimed the war was conceived to keep the Conservative Party’s ‘money-making friends in business’.

Last night, his comments drew a furious response from veterans. Simon Weston, who suffered horrific burns when the troop landing ship Sir Galahad was bombed by Argentine jets, warned yesterday that Mr Corbyn ‘could be a liability for this country’.

He said his attack on the motives of the Thatcher government and his description of those who fought in the conflict was ‘deplorable, ignorant and absolutely offensive’.

Mr Corbyn’s ‘Tory plot’ outburst came while he was a key member of a hard-left group of Labour councillors in Haringey, North London. At the time, with the nation reeling from the sinking of HMS Ardent with the loss of 22 lives, a Tory councillor tabled a motion urging the council to express its ‘loyal support’ for local men serving in the South Atlantic.

But Mr Corbyn refused to offer ‘loyal support’ and instead provoked outrage by seconding an amendment, which was passed, expressing only ‘sympathy’ for British servicemen – and calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops.

The Labour amendment prompted six Royal British Legion guests to storm out of a council meeting ‘amid scenes of near hysteria,’ according to a local newspaper report.

During the meeting, Mr Corbyn was quoted saying: ‘We resent this waste of unemployed men who are being sent to the Falklands to die for Thatcher and [Argentine President] Galtieri. It is a nauseating waste of money and lives... the whole thing is a Tory Plot to keep their money-making friends in business.’

Corbyn (far right) shares a stage with Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro (second from right) at the Latin American Conference 2014

In recent years Mr Corbyn’s views on the conflict have scarcely softened and he still appears to favour returning the islands to Argentina.

CORBYN'S INSULTING RANT Corbyn at a stormy council meeting, quoted in Hornsey Journal, May 1982: 'We resent this waste of unemployed men who are being sent to the Falklands to die for Thatcher and Galtieri. The Foreign Office has been doing deals with the junta for years. A tide of jingoism is sweeping the country. Already £1.5 billion has been spent on this invasion. It is a nauseating waste of money and lives. 'We are spending all this at a time when we can’t find money for houses, hospitals or wages, not for world hunger, not for aid to north-east Africa. Yet they can commandeer ships like there’s no tomorrow, and send people to die in the south Atlantic. 'The whole thing is a Tory plot to keep their money-making friends in business.' Advertisement

In 2013, he hugged and kissed his friend, Alicia Castro, the Argentine ambassador to the UK, when they shared a platform at the Latin American Conference in London.

At the event Mr Corbyn called the 1982 war a ‘grotesque waste of life by a corrupt and bankrupt regime against a corrupt and bankrupt British government’ and he has urged Britain to negotiate with Argentina over the sovereignty of the islands.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Mr Corbyn repeated that view, saying: ‘It’s no secret that Jeremy was a critic of the Falklands War and has long urged a long-term negotiated settlement which, of course, should take into consideration the views of the islanders themselves.’

But Labour peer Lord West, the commander of HMS Ardent which was sunk three days before Mr Corbyn’s outburst in May 1982, called the Islington MP’s position ‘complete nonsense’.

Pointing out that the people of the islands had voted ‘again and again to remain British’, he said: ‘I thought he [Corbyn] believes in democracy, but it seems he was happy a fascist dictatorship should crush democracy in the islands.’

A huge explosion aboard the HMS Antelope lights up the sky on May 24, 1982. Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Mr Corbyn said it was no secret he was a critic of the war

Falklands veteran Stuart Cardy, 55, who grew up in Haringey before joining the Parachute Regiment, said: ‘I wasn’t unemployed, far from it. I had been a professional soldier for nearly four years at the time of the conflict and I continued as such until 1991.

‘I remember the comments Corbyn made, so did my mother who had always been a Labour supporter. She thought it was disgusting that he was saying these things while we were on our way to war.’