Jeremy Corbyn ‘must put Labour leadership first’

The party leader entered the Turkish restaurant in Southwark by the back door on Friday evening, avoiding most of the photographers and television cameras awaiting his arrival.

He said: “The Stop the War Coalition has been one of the most important democratic campaigns of modern times”.

“Every time he opens his mouth he manages to offend large numbers of people, so maybe he should just open his mouth a little less”, Mr Dugher said.

“These attacks serve only to distract from the government’s crumbling case for war in Syria – and the fact that our movement has been proved right in its campaigns against the disastrous conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya”.

The “anti-war movement has been a vital force at the heart of our democracy”, he said.

He told Sky News: ‘At the end of the day Jeremy will have to decide there is a balance between what is the leadership of the Labour party and representing that, a very hard job, and the one of having to carry out commitments (to) say, Stop the War.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme, the shadow treasury minister Richard Burgon, said: “The attacks on Stop the War are proxy attacks on Jeremy Corbyn. Why on earth should he not celebrate Christmas with his closest friends and his strongest supporters?”

The activist insisted that the group was not an “apologist” for Bashar Assad and dismissed suggestions the group should campaign against the Syrian dictator and other brutal regimes rather than focusing only on Western action.

Mr Dash said that he and fellow members are opposed to extending air strikes in Syria, but are wiling to put Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw’s decision to support intervention behind them.

Although Owen Jones was once Jeremy Corbyn’s main cheerleader, in recent months his relationship with the Labour leader has cooled as his former Guardian colleague Seumas Milne has usurped him in Corbyn’s trusted circle.

Corbyn served as chair of Stop the War coalition until September this year, when he was elected as leader of the Labour party. She also spoke out against a call from Conservative backbencher Philip Davies for a debate in parliament to mark International Men’s Day.

“I would do anything that I felt was going to make the Labour Party win the next election, because if I don’t have that attitude all I am doing is colluding with the Tories”.