Corbyn paints May and Trump as the real 'coalition of chaos'
The Labour leader tries to turn the tables on a popular Tory line of attack and neutralise his national security weaknesses.
Friday 12 May 2017 16:10, UK
A vote for Theresa May is a vote to escalate war in Syria - that was Jeremy Corbyn's defence pitch to the nation, an attempt to invert the Conservative election narrative.
The coalition actually on offer, he argued, was a riAG百家乐在线官网 one between Theresa May and Donald Trump that would lead to more unpopular military entanglements around the world.
There would be "no more hand holding with Donald Trump" said Mr Corbyn referring to the White House meeting with Mrs May in January, as he was a President "determined" to add to the world's dangers.
"Waiting to see which way the wind blows in Washington isn't strong leadership. And pandering to an erratic Trump administration will not deliver stability," said the Opposition leader at Chatham House.
For good measure he also criticised the PM's speech to the Republican Congress in Philadelphia this year, which he characterised as being hostile to India and China in an effort to curry favour with the White House.
Downing St would dispute that interpretation and point to the fact that Mrs May, whilst warning against the "eclipse of the West", said the rise of the economic rise of the Asian giants was "hugely welcome".
So the Labour leader chose to try to turn the tables on the well-drilled rhetoric around coalitions, chaos, strength and stability.
It was, he argued to the audience of diplomats, Mrs May and Mr Trump who represent the real risk.
All this against a backdrop of trying to neutralise his national security weaknesses.
No, he is not a pacifist. He said his "first duty" would be to do "everything necessary to protect the safety and security of our people and our country". As a genuine last resort, military action is "in some circumstances necessary".
He backed the NATO 2% spending target. Trident would not be used as a first strike nuclear attack, but he left open whether it could be used to retaliate to any attack.
But he was against the now routine "unilateral wars and interventions", a "failed recipe that has served us so badly".
In a speech about defence Mr Corbyn quoted both Martin Luther King and President Dwight Eisenhower's warning about a "military-industrial complex".
Although his target for this speech was reassuring the voters, it was also an attempt to purge the Labour Party of Tony Blair's Iraq demons.
This is one problem for Mr Corbyn - much of what he was attacking could be more credibly pinned on actual Labour Governments more, for now, than what Mrs May might do over the next five years.
The PM also sounded somewhat reticent about the same foreign entanglements in the very Philadelphia speech that Mr Corbyn criticised.
But there can be no doubt that security is a big perceived weakness among the electorate for Labour under Mr Corbyn.
His answer is that the reality of the world under a May supermajority is that she will actually be worse.
The appeal of this argument is there for a section of voters that Mr Corbyn needs - it formed part of the coalition of Leave voters and UKIP voters against "global elites".
But is it an answer to the fundamental question about whether a prospective Prime Minister makes voters feel safe?
The Conservatives are sure to emphasise his contacts with Irish republicans in the 1980s in this campaign.
His retort in this speech was that he, unlike her party, was on the right side of history in opposing Apartheid South Africa, the Iraq War and the Libyan intervention in 2011 (he was one of 13 MPs to vote against).
Nothing about Mr Corbyn is conventional.
Sir Michael Fallon was never going to respond to him or any other Opposition Leader in any other way than describing him a threat to Britain's security.
His argument is, actually, that, if the public stop and think, the reverse is true. His problem so far, as it is for ostensibly popular manifesto policies, is the voters he need to win, aren't yet willing to get past first impressions.
The Conservatives would be delighted to fight this election on defence, security and terrorism, perhaps even more than their current chosen battleground of leadership in the Brexit negotiations.
:: Follow every twist and turn of the election race in 'The Campaign with Sophy Ridge' on Sky News every weekday from 9pm.