An explosive investigative report from Britain’s Mail on Sunday has unearthed long-standing ties between a senior aide to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and terrorist organizations committed to the destruction of Israel.
The report details how Seumas Milne, the party’s head of strategy and communications, has for decades supported the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that exercises complete political and military control over Gaza, and aims to bring down the Jewish state.
Milne, the Mail claims, first met with members of the PLO on a trip to the Middle East when he was a student at Oxford University in 1977. In his writings, the former Guardian journalist has since expressed support for Palestinian terrorist organizations—the PLO and, more recently, Hamas.
The senior Labour aide, together with Corbyn, visited Hamas terror leaders during a 2010 trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Corbyn broke British parliamentary rules by failing to disclose the trip and later gushed over having had “a takeaway dinner” with Hamas chief Khaled Mashal in the parliament building in Gaza.
Asked about his senior aide’s links to the terrorist organization, which calls for the destruction of Israel by force, Corbyn said: “I don’t think it is appropriate for me to be quizzed on his individual views. He is a man of immense intellect and a scholar.”
Meanwhile, a prominent Jewish Labour MP, who spoke on condition for anonymity for fear of “death threats” by Corbyn supporters, told the Mail: “I think it’s evident to anyone who has been in the Parliamentary Labour Party for the past three years that Seumas Milne has an undue influence on events. It’s not just concerning—it’s appalling, especially over the issue of anti-Semitism.”
The investigation also revealed Milne’s extensive ties to organizations linked to the Kremlin. Shortly after pro-Russian forces illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Milne attended a conference session in Russia featuring keynote speaker Russian President Vladimir Putin. All expenses were paid for by its organizers, a think-tank close to the Kremlin.
The fresh accusations against Milne have raised alarm bells in Britain’s security establishment.
Sir Richard Dearlove, who led the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 from 1999 to 2004, told the Mail: “Anyone with his sort of background could not be let anywhere near classified information. It would be out of the question. That means Corbyn could not make the judgments and decisions a PM has to make unless he stopped consulting him.”
John Sipher, the former head of the CIA’s Russia division, told the newspaper he had “no doubt” that a Corbyn government would hurt relations between Britain and the United States. “If there was a legitimate concern that Mr. Corbyn would include Mr. Milne in intelligence-related discussions, the U.S. would likely share less of its most sensitive information,” he concluded.
Below is a list revealed by the outlet:
- During a university vacation in 1977, Milne visited Lebanon during its civil war, and met Palestine Liberation Organisation terrorists dedicated to destroying Israel by violence;
- Returning to England, he set up and ran a campaign to spread PLO propaganda at Oxford University;
- Later, Milne forged links with Hamas, which remains committed to Israel’s destruction and has perpetrated hundreds of terrorist attacks, and traveled with Corbyn to meet its leaders on a trip to the Middle East funded by UK Hamas sympathizers in 2010;
- After graduating in 1979, he became the business manager for a hardline, pro-Soviet newspaper that backed PLO violence, Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in Iran, the taking of American hostages and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan;
- The paper’s star columnist was a long-standing Kremlin mole;
- Milne personally backed the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the trigger for decades of terrorist violence, arguing that it was a “progressive” event that was “liberating” Afghan women and improving human rights;
- As a reporter for The Guardian newspaper in the 1980s, Milne acquired a powerful mentor, features editor Richard Gott, who was later forced to resign after admitting that he took a series of foreign trips paid for by the Soviets, during which he met KGB officials;
- After the 1984 Provisional IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Tory Party conference, which killed five people and injured 31. Milne told Guardian colleagues, “I think it is a very daring attack,” as maimed victims were still being carried from the wreckage;
- In 2014, he chaired a conference session in Russia at which the star speaker was Russian President Vladimir Putin, with all his expenses paid for by its organizers, a think-tank close to Putin’s government. Afterwards, he was criticized by his colleagues at The Guardian, which had boycotted the event because it took place just months after Russia illegally seized Crimea from Ukraine.
In 1978, Milne co-founded the Oxford Palestine Campaign, a radical anti-Israel group. They denounced the peace treaty that year between Israel and Egypt: “We must now expect the Palestinians to react in the only way that is left to them: to escalate their armed resistance.”
“Without a shadow of a doubt, Corbyn trusts Milne more than anyone,” a senior Labour staff member told The Daily Mail. “I actually think Corbyn is a little bit thick. It’s no exaggeration to say that Milne is ‘Corbyn’s brain.’ ”
“Seumas has been supporting groups that deny Israel’s right to exist for many years,” he added.
Labour, led by Jeremy Corbyn, who has ties similar to Milne’s, dismissed the claims: “These are the same old smears from a discredited establishment determined to prevent the election of a radical Labour government because our plans to transform the country and end support for disastrous wars threaten their interests.”
