Funnily enough, after Ken Livingstone told the Daily Politics that the defence review that he is co-chairing with the new Labour Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry would consider whether Britain will leave Nato, the party has issued a statement shooting down the former Mayor’s suggestion:
‘The terms of the defence review are still to be agreed but will not look at our membership of Nato.’
Livingstone said the following to the BBC:
‘That’s one of the things we will look at. There will be many people wanting to do that. I don’t think it’s a particularly big issue because in the Cold War it was; it isn’t now. Russia is not planning to invade the West.’
Whether or not the defence review will actually end up examining the issue, Livingstone’s comments have made Labour’s bad reshuffle week just a little bit worse. It’s almost as if he wants to make it as easy as possible for the Tories to claim that Labour is a threat to national security.
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