The real Beast from the East reawakens brave Labour MPs

By Oliver Foster

Friday 16th March

An attack on the streets of Salisbury has led to echoes of the Cold War. Oli Foster, Chief Executive, looks at how the nefarious use of Novichok has reawakened a range of Labour Party MPs.

The Labour Party has a proud history of championing robust and responsible foreign policy. In 1940 Clement Atlee gave the full backing of the Labour party to form part of the wartime coalition against the Nazis and, over forty years later in 1982, Michael Foot stood up and supported Margaret Thatcher’s dispatch of 40,000 British troops to face Argentinian aggression. The Party remained resolutely anti-Soviet throughout the Cold War, with Harold Wilson stating that Labour owes more to Methodism than Marxism.

Such sentiment was echoed this week thanks to Russia’s return to Cold War machinations, or ‘Active Measures’ as the KGB called them. Although it was far from universal, and the focus this week has quite rightly been on the Party leadership, we have nevertheless seen the reawakening of many of the Labour Party’s most talented MPs.

Prominent Labour backbenchers and influential Shadow Cabinet Ministers unwaveringly stood behind Theresa May, supporting the Prime Minister as she took a firm stance condemning Russia for its culpability of the attempted murder of Mr Skipal and his daughter, Yulia. Yvette Cooper, chair of the home affairs select committee, and others like Chris Bryant, Ben Bradshaw and Hilary Benn, rediscovered their voices thanks to the incident in Salisbury.

Shadow Cabinet members followed suit, with Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffiths insisting that Labour fully accepts Russia’s responsibility on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer last night confirming the party’s backing on BBC Question Time with “no ifs” and “no buts”.

The passionate speeches and actions of current Labour MPs show that the Labour Party remains full of talented, thoughtful people, who care deeply about their country.

This is refreshing and important because we live at a time when political pessimism is at a high. Column inches, timelines and conversations perpetually lament the state of UK politics and the wider public has become politically fatigued.

My hope is that the Salisbury incident provides an opportunity to galvanise the Labour Party and, more broadly, British politics. Our politics has become too dominated by the ‘B word’, leaving otherwise quite talented politicians like Chuka Umunna obsessing on the issue and withdrawing from wider politics. This leaves a deficit of ideas and makes both the country and the Labour Party poorer.

To quote George Orwell, ours is a country that comes together to “act and feel alike” during a crisis, with it sleepwalking the rest of the time. Perhaps this sordid Salisbury affair can do something similar for the Labour Party, awakening its most talented MPs from their backbench Brexit slumber and bringing fresh, essential life back to British politics. If so, the future of British politics will be far brighter.

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