Labour leader’s official points to lack of outrage in west over ‘large casualties caused by US-led bombing’

Protests at US embassy as valid as at Russia's, says Corbyn spokesman

Jeremy Corbyn believes Boris Johnson’s focus on halting Russian airstrikes in Syria “diverts attention” from other atrocities in the country, including those committed by the US-led coalition, a spokesman for the Labour leader has said.



Corbyn had condemned the Russian attacks, “as he has condemned the intervention by all outside forces in the Syrian civil war”, the spokesman said, but warned that “the focus on Russian atrocities in Syria sometimes diverts attention from other atrocities that are taking place”.

Reality check: are US-led airstrikes on Syrians as bad as Russia's? Read more

The remarks were made at a briefing of journalists after prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

“Independent assessments are that there have been very large-scale civilian casualties as a result of the US-led coalition bombing. There are several cases of large numbers of deaths in single attacks, and there hasn’t been as much focus on those casualties,” the spokesman said.

The foreign secretary had called for protests outside the Russian embassy in London in response to the bombing of Aleppo and to put pressure on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.

The Labour spokesman said said he wasn’t drawing a “moral equivalence” between Russia’s actions and those of the US, but when asked whether it was as equally legitimate for the public to protest outside the US embassy as the Russian, he replied: “People are free to protest outside the intervening powers’ embassies, and there are a number of them.” Asked if that included the US, he said, “obviously”.

Earlier at PMQs, Theresa May raised doubts over the safety and enforcement of a potential no-fly zone over Syria to protect civilians.

She told the Commons: “The scenes we see of the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians are absolutely appalling. We want to see an end to that, but there are many questions about a no-fly zone that need to be looked at: Who is it there to protect? Would it lead to [President Bashar al-]Assad bombing people in the expectation that they would then move to that zone? Who would enforce that safe area?”

Labour backbenchers, some of whom had confronted Corbyn over his stance on Syria at Monday night’s meeting of the parliamentary party, reacted angrily to his spokesman’s remarks.

The Barrow in Furness MP, John Woodcock, said: “The whole world is looking at what Russian helicopters and jets are doing in Syria, and pleading with them to stop. If this is really Labour’s position, it puts us in a group with Russia, North Korea, and probably that’s it.”

Separately, it emerged on Wednesday night that Corbyn’s policy adviser removed a reference to tackling “Russian aggression” from a briefing for Labour MPs produced by the party’s pro-EU campaign, Labour In, during the referendum campaign.

Emails sent in May and seen by the Guardian show Andrew Fisher singled out a paragaph in a draft of the document that said, “Britain’s EU membership means we can counter Russian aggression in eastern Europe”.

Fisher wrote: “The references to ‘Russian aggression’ on pp 11 and 12 look like a relic of the cold war era and should be removed”.

In response, a senior Labour In official said the language was a strong argument, and had already been used by Hilary Benn. But Fisher wrote: “We want a positive line, so we need to stick with: ‘Combined EU diplomacy can help us achieve more to secure peace and challenge human rights abuses across the world.’” This phrase appears in the final draft.

A spokesman for Corbyn said the exchange was part of the normal editing process.

The Stop the War coalition said protesting outside the Russian embassy over actions in Syria would only increase the “hysteria and jingoism” being stirred up against Russia by politicians and the media.

Chris Nineham, the vice-chairman of the anti-war campaign group, which Corbyn chaired before he became Labour leader, said the government was fuelling anti-Russian sentiment in an attempt to justify an escalation of British military intervention.

His comments followed those of Johnson, who in an emergency Commons debate on Tuesday called for demonstrations outside the Russian embassy in London and asked why leftwing protest groups seemed to lack outrage over Russian conduct in Syria.

Johnson has angered Russia by claiming that its forces may have been guilty of war crimes when airstrikes hit a UN aid convoy near Aleppo last month, ending a fragile ceasefire brokered by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. The accusations amounted to “Russophobic hysteria”, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The press secretary at the Russian embassy said: “Britain’s logic implies putting an end to fighting terrorists and their allies. Our logic is different. Fight on to destroy the jihadists, sparing the civilians.”



