Ed Miliband: Labour should focus on fighting the Tories.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has appealed for the party to focus on fighting the Tories as the party continues to tear itself apart under his successor.

Jeremy Corbyn ignored calls by senior figures to stay away from a Stop the War Coalition dinner in the wake of a series of controversial statements it made about terrorism and air strikes on Syria.

The party leader instead defiantly insisted the protest group is one of the most important campaigning organisations of modern times and described it as a "vital force at the heart of our democracy".

Mr Miliband refused to condemn Mr Corbyn's decision to attend the event but urged the party to focus on fighting the Conservatives.

He told BBC Two's Newsnight: "I'm not going to commentate on what organisations Jeremy Corbyn chooses to be a member of. He's got a long-standing association with this organisation, he's got a long-standing opposition to different types of intervention. He spoke on this in the Syria debate.

"I think our party's focus should be on taking the fight to the Tories and working out the ideas that are going to win us the next general election, not Jeremy Corbyn's political engagements."

Mr Corbyn, who chaired the Stop the War Coalition before taking charge of Labour in September, attended its fundraising dinner in London despite calls from a number of MPs, including former frontbenchers Tristram Hunt and Caroline Flint, to shun the event after a tweet and article published following the attacks on Paris suggested France had ''reaped the whirlwind'' of Western support for extremist violence in the Middle East.




Press Association.
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