‘What’s the Best Way of Bringing About Peace?’ Corbyn Says NATO Should 'Ultimately' Be Disbanded

Jeremy Corbyn joined a group of 11 Labour MPs who signed a Stop the War coalition letter in February, which urged NATO to “call a halt to its eastward expansion” and accused the UK government of “sabre-rattling” over Ukraine.

Former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has told Times Radio that military alliances like NATO could pose a threat to world peace — should eventually be dissolved.

“I would want to see a world where we start to ultimately disband all military alliances. The issue has to be: what’s the best way of bringing about peace in the future? Is it by more alliances? Is it by more military build-up?” he stressed.

The Islington North MP admitted that NATO would not be scrapped immediately, but added that people should “look at the process that could happen at the end of the Ukraine war”.

“[…] Ask yourself the question: do military alliances bring peace? Or do they actually encourage each other and build up to a greater danger?”, Corbyn said, adding that he “doesn’t blame NATO for the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine”, in a nod to Moscow’s ongoing special military operation in the country.

The ex-Labour leader also said that he wanted to see “some kind of much deeper security discussion, as indeed NATO was having a security discussion with Russia until last year”.

The interview comes after Labour leader Keir Starmer made it clear earlier this month that Corbyn will not have the Labour whip restored while he continues to associate with the Stop the War coalition. Starmer said that it was “very clear” those who wanted to be Labour MPs had to be supporters of NATO and reject “false equivalence” between the alliance and the Russian “aggression”.

The Stop the War motion demanded NATO “call a halt to its eastward expansion” and urged “the entire anti-war movement to unite on the basis of challenging the British government's aggressive posturing and direct its campaigning to that end above all”.

Corbyn lost the Labour whip over his response to the October 2020 Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report into allegations of anti-Semitism in the party. The veteran left-winger stated at the time that "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media".

Although the ex-opposition leader was reinstated as a Labour member after a suspension, Starmer refused to readmit Corbyn to the parliamentary party.

The Russian special military operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine was ordered by President Vladimir Putin on 24 February, following a request for help from the Donbass republics amid increased shelling by the Ukrainian Army. The operation only aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure with high-precision weapons, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.