There are many people who aren’t especially fond of Jeremy Corbyn for various reasons.
He has critics on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. Some argue he is ‘unelectable’ and too ‘Old Labour’ (or ‘Labour’ as it used to be known), whilst others argue that he is not a strong enough Leader of the Opposition, both in terms of controlling his own party and effectively opposing Theresa May’s government.
His supporters are just as passionate, and love the fact that he is far from the archetypal modern politician and sticks resolutely to his basic principles. Such a divisive figure will always be subject to both generous praise and stinging criticism of a deeply partisan nature. That is all well and fine, and reflective of a healthy democracy.
However, shamelessly inventing stories of Corbyn disrespecting our war dead to score political points is beyond the pale in anyone’s book. Sadly that is exactly what the Sun decidedly to do. They took a number of snaps of the Labour leader talking to 92-year-old George Durack on Remembrance Sunday, and cropped the war veteran out.
The newspaper then falsely claimed that the still images portrayed Corbyn ‘doing a jig’ on Downing Street – something that patently did not happen…
As you can well imagine, Durack, a Word War II veteran who served in the 7th Armoured Division, was upset and disappointed by the extremely disingenuous and disrespectful ‘story’. He told the Mirror:
“I’ve seen a bit of action and that annoys me when somebody tries to make fun of something like this, I take it very seriously I lost good friends and good colleagues in the war and like me Jeremy Corbyn takes it very seriously.
“It’s absolute nonsense. I was with him all the time and I never saw nothing like that at all. If they try to blacken his name at least do it legitimately don’t make farce of something like that. I think it’s pretty awful.
“I was with Jeremy when he lay the wreath and I was his companion at the Cenotaph so I know everything he’s done today because I was there.”
Many on social media were also taken aback by the sheer depths to which the Sun would stoop to discredit Corbyn – and the fact that they had the cheek to question his level of respect on a solemn day of Remembrance.
Today The Sun & Mail chose #remebrancesunday to peddle more smears. No, Corbyn wasn't jigging towards the cenotaph. pic.twitter.com/vtV6VnY8BQ
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) November 13, 2016
This is why people should just stop buying and believing The Scum.. I mean @TheSun @jeremycorbyn pic.twitter.com/hLLHNfxkn3
— CassCams (@CassCamsModels) November 14, 2016
https://twitter.com/msjenniferjames/status/797924846084599811
Hi @TheSun. Delete this. You're lying, so says the 92-year-old war veteran you conveniently cropped out of your pics https://t.co/pFLLmDZXgU pic.twitter.com/yVXwFbnfsz
— The Sun Apologies (@SunApology) November 13, 2016
#LestWeForget: The Sun used Remembrance Sunday, not to honour our war dead, but to smear Jeremy Corbyn. They've since deleted their smear. pic.twitter.com/bwcuVVaMGm
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) November 14, 2016
https://twitter.com/voiceofbramley/status/797844316324556800
