Labour leadership frontrunner told show shortly after the 2011 raid that the death was ‘yet another tragedy’ that would result in deeper unrest

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Jeremy Corbyn has come under fire for saying it was a “tragedy” that Osama bin Laden was killed by the US rather than being put on trial.



The Labour leadership frontrunner made the remarks shortly after the special forces raid in 2011 on the al-Qaida chief’s Pakistan compound in which he and four others were shot dead.

In an interview for Iranian television, he suggested the assassination of the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks would result in deeper unrest.

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It is the latest in a series of past comments and associations that the veteran left-winger has been forced to defend since emerging as the surprise favourite to succeed Ed Miliband.

In a clip from the Press TV show the Agenda, Corbyn is heard complaining that there had been “no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him and put him on trial, to go through that process”. He went on: “This was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy.

“The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. Tens of thousands of people have died. Torture has come back on to the world stage, been canonised virtually into law by Guantánamo and Bagram.

“Can’t we learn some lessons from this? Are we just going to sink deeper and deeper?

“The next stage will be an attempted assassination on Gaddafi and so it will go on. This will just make the world more dangerous and worse and worse and worse.”

A spokesman for Corbyn said he was “a total opponent of al-Qaida, all it stands for”.

But the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, said Corbyn was “utterly wrong”. “Bin Laden’s death was not a tragedy. The tragedy was the 2,977 who died during that awful day. We remember them,” he said.

It came as George Osborne claimed a Labour Party led by Corbyn would pose a threat to national security by threatening the future of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

The chancellor said “an unholy alliance of Labour’s left-wing insurgents and the Scottish nationalists” would shatter decades of near-unbroken Westminster consensus in favour of maintaining a capability.

Corbyn and the SNP are opposed to the renewal of the Trident missile system being pursued by the Conservative government.

But Osborne, who is visiting the Faslane naval base, home of the nuclear submarine fleet, to announce a £500m investment, said that would be “disastrous”.

Despite Corbyn’s dominance of the campaign, Andy Burnham claimed enough Labour backers were still to make up their minds to swing the result of the party leadership race in his favour.

The bulk of the 550,000-plus available votes are thought already to have been cast but Burnham will tell a rally on Monday he is confident many of the undecided are switching back to his cause.

The other candidates are fellow shadow cabinet minister Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.

“Tens of thousands of people are still to vote and there is everything to play for, he will say – though his camp said they did not have any details of the number of votes cast.