David Lammy today said there are no plans to reinstate Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour MP.
The shadow foreign secretary also urged Corbyn to withdraw his name from a controversial Stop the War Coalition statement.
The statement criticised Nato and accused the UK government of “inflaming tensions and indicating disdain for Russian concerns”.
Last week eleven Labour MPs on the left of the party withdrew their signatures from the letter on the orders of leader Sir Keir Starmer.
However, the former Labour leader, and Claudia Webbe – both of whom now sit as independents – kept their signatures on the letter.
“Jeremy no more supports Putin now than he supported Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War.”
- Diane Abbott
The move is expected to diminish Corbyn’s chances of being reinstated as a Labour MP.
He had the whip removed in October 2020 after he refused to apologise for his statement that allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour party were “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
Labour frontbencher Lammy told Times Radio this morning: “I don’t think there are any plans to reinstate him at the moment.
“I think he should withdraw his name from that [Stop the War] letter.
“This is a moment to stand with the Ukrainian people and to not put yourself in a position where you are effectively parroting the lines that are coming from Vladimir Putin, lines that suggest that this is because of threats from Nato, or Nato expansion. This has got nothing to do with that.
“This is about imperial ambition on behalf of Vladimir Putin. It’s about, very, very sadly, waging war on innocent people, children dying overnight. I’m afraid no member of parliament in a free democratic system like ours should sign up to that agenda that is effectively his.”
Corbyn ally and Labour MP Diane Abbott hit back, saying: “Jeremy no more supports Putin now than he supported Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War.
“A negotiated settlement was right then and it is right now.”
It comes after another backbench Labour MP Zarah Sultana said she received a death threat as a result of “inaccurate” media reporting of her views on the war in Ukraine.
The Coventry South MP said she contacted police after receiving a racially abusive email from someone who described her as “Putin’s whore”.
She was one of 11 Labour MPs ordered to remove their names from the Stop The War statement - along with Abbott, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Ian Lavery, Beth Winter, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Apsana Begum, Mick Whitley, Tahir Ali and Ian Mearns.
“I am in no doubt that this horrific and absurd attack is the direct result of inaccurate media reports and deliberately misleading press comments,” Sultana said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“The environment this has created is an active danger to the safety of public figures, and threatens to narrow our democracy.
“Like all my colleagues, I am horrified at the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I stand with the people of Ukraine and have unequivocally condemned Putin’s actions.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Corbyn’s office for comment.