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Burnham 'would resign from Corbyn cabinet' over Nato and Trident stance | Burnham 'would resign from Corbyn cabinet' over Nato and Trident stance |
(35 minutes later) | |
The Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham has declared he would not be able to serve in a frontbench team led by Jeremy Corbyn if his government wanted the UK to withdraw from Nato or scrap Trident. | |
Burnham, who lost his status as the favourite in late-July, said he would have to resign from any cabinet if the party supported the current frontrunner’s stance on Nato and Trident. He also said Corbyn might not command the support of the rest of the party for such policies if elected leader. | |
“Those would not be policies I could support. I would not support a policy of leaving Nato. It would be highly irresponsible with the world as it is right now,” he said at a candidates’ hustings hosted by BBC 5 Live. | |
“But you’re jumping several guns. This debate would have to take place in the party ... With all respect to Jeremy, one person does not impose a policy across the party in week one.” | |
Burnham has been the only candidate to say he would be prepared to serve in a cabinet run by the Islington North MP. Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall have said they could not work with him. | |
Burnham said he had not been prepared to resign from the shadow cabinet over its decision last month to abstain on the government’s welfare bill vote, because he believed in party unity. He was clear, however, that he would resign if it came backing the UK’s withdrawal from Nato. | |
Corbyn said the role of the Labour leader was not to be a dictator and that he would not decide everything because the party should be more involved in setting policy. | |
Kendall repeated her position, saying nobody would believe her if she had to defend Corbyn’s positions as a member of his frontbench team. | |
Cooper clashed with Corbyn over his decision to call people from Hamas and Hezbollah friends, and for his sharing a platform with an activist who the former home secretary Jacqui Smith banned from the UK on the grounds of extremism. She said it was a question of judgment, and that the leader of Labour should be expected to reflect the values of that party. | |
Corbyn said she was in danger of misquoting him and argued that to bring about peace it was necessary to talk to people one profoundly disagrees with. He pointed out that Tony Blair was talking to Hamas. | Corbyn said she was in danger of misquoting him and argued that to bring about peace it was necessary to talk to people one profoundly disagrees with. He pointed out that Tony Blair was talking to Hamas. |
Cooper said she did not question Corbyn’s values but was worried by the signals he sent out by sharing platforms with some of the people he has met. | |
At a rally for Burnham on Monday night, John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, said that some of his former cabinet colleagues needed to “show a bit more humility when they make their comments about who they would work with or wouldn’t work with”. |
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