Jeremy Corbyn has urged Britain to “walk the hard yards to a better way to live together on this planet” as he set out Labour’s foreign policy in an election campaign speech.
Corbyn said a Labour government would pursue what he called a “triple commitment” to defence, development and diplomacy, and seek to resolve potential conflicts through political action rather than relying on military force.
Speaking to an audience of foreign policy experts at the Chatham House thinktank in London, the Labour leader and longtime peace campaigner described how his personal views on armed conflict had been fuelled by hearing from his parents about the horrors of the second world war, and seeing graphic images of the Vietnam war.
“My generation grew up under the shadow of the cold war. On television, through the 1960s and into the 70s, the news was dominated by Vietnam. I was haunted by images of civilians fleeing chemical weapons used by the United States.
“I didn’t imagine then that nearly 50 years later we would see chemical weapons still being used against innocent civilians. What an abject failure. How is it that history keeps repeating itself?”
