Victims campaigner seeks Corbyn clarifications

Victims campaigner Kenny Donaldson says he's sought a meeting with the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over historical remarks relating to Northern Ireland's troubled past.

A local victims campaigner says he's sought a meeting with the recently re-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr. Corbyn swept to victory in the Labour leadership contest last Saturday (24th September) with an even greater mandate than he'd received just a year earlier.

But now a Fermanagh-based victims and survivors spokesman has demanded a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition - over statements the Islington North MP made about the Troubles during the 1980s - while sitting as a back-bench MP.

Kenny Dondaldson, from Innocent Victims United, says victims want Mr. Corbyn to acknowledge the hurt this may have caused.

"We've sought from him on behalf of victims and survivors an acknowledgement of the hurt and harm [that some of his comments and actions] have done. And also, we're seeking to know from him: does he with the benefit of hindsight regret what he was involved with at that stage, and how does he feel about these issues today?"

Kenny believes it's now time the Labour leader clarified his position on past remarks.

"We've sought contact in order to seek clarification from him around a range of actions and speeches he's given in the past where he very clearly has been understood to have given support for a pathway used in Northern Ireland around the armed struggle," he said.

Mr. Donaldson says that unless Jeremy Corbyn is clear on his stance on paramilitarism here in the past, then the Labour leader would always suffer "a gulf in trust" among victims and survivors here in Northern Ireland as well as across the UK.

"In the absence [of clarification of his remarks], people will very much see him still as that individual who stood for a minute's silence on behalf of those terrorists who came to an end in Loughall," Kenny Donaldson said.

"And against that he will have a real gulf in trust and confidence within victims and survivors. We're not simply a local-based network: our membership reaches right across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland," he continued.

"So many of our members are actually people whose loved-ones have been harmed in hurt in GB - the very people who Mr. Corbyn will be looking for, in terms of support if he is ever to reach the lofty heights of Prime Minister," he added.