Peter Tatchell's interruption a 'reckoning' for Jeremy Corbyn
The protest by the veteran human rights campaigner subjects the Labour leader's own record to a barrage of fire.
Sunday 11 December 2016 09:32, UK
Jeremy Corbyn had intended to embarrass Theresa May's government on Saturday.
He was poised to accuse the Prime Minister of "sacrificing human rights on the altar of the arms trade" by cosying up to "dictatorial" Saudi Arabia while it represses its citizens at home and carries out atrocities in neighbouring Yemen with British weaponry.
But while hoping to put pressure on the Government to practice what it preaches, instead it was his own record which came under a barrage of fire - and from a respected left-wing campaigner.
Peter Tatchell interrupted his speech to accuse Mr Corbyn of double standards - happily calling out any intervention by the West and its Allies; but failing to issue firm condemnation of Russian barrel-bombing of Syrians.
Appearing with members of the group Syria Solidarity UK, Mr Tatchell told Sky afterwards: "Jeremy is of the old-school mould that American imperialism and British imperialism are the main enemies in the world.
"But sorry - the world has moved on. We now have the rise of Russian imperialism... and Iranian imperialism in Syria."
The Labour leader's outlook on foreign policy is well-known.
As founder of the Stop the War coalition he opposed the Iraq War - as did former Labour politician Mr Tatchell - and made some prescient arguments against it.
Many people share his unease about Britain's arms sales to the Gulf, and the dubious human rights record of Britain's allies there.
Mr Corbyn spent decades as a backbencher expressing "solidarity" with those in South America, the Middle East and elsewhere who he regards, often controversially, as victims of American and British imperialism.
These include Cuba - whose brutal dictator Fidel Castro was praised by Mr Corbyn uncritically last month as a "champion of social justice".
Mr Tatchell - better known for protesting against dictators such as Robert Mugabe - is far from the first to call him out.
At a particularly combative meeting with Labour MPs in October, Mr Corbyn was lambasted for apparently hesitating to condemn an attack on a hospital in Aleppo.
One of those Labour MPs, John Woodcock, tweeted today: "Families are being gassed as we bite our tongue about JC; no more. It is repugnant he can barely bring himself to criticise Russia even now."
Mr Corbyn does talk about the "horrific" suffering of the Syrian people; today he called it the worst humanitarian crisis of our time and insisted he "condemns all bombing" - including by the West against Islamic State.
But the fierce rhetoric about war crimes which he directs at the US and its allies is notably absent where President Assad and his backers in Moscow are concerned.
Mr Tatchell challenged him to harden up his condemnation; to support sanctions against Russia, to push in Parliament for air drops of aid and medicine to starving victims of regime aggression; and demand the suspension of Syria from the UN until it agrees to a ceasefire.
He makes similar demands of the UK Government. Mr Tatchell can hardly be dismissed by Mr Corbyn's inner circle team as just another Blairite seeking to undermine the leader.
For Mr Corbyn, who likes to claim he has campaigned for human rights throughout his political career, this is a reckoning.