The fake news aimed at Jeremy Corbyn by the Establishment would have us believe that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has shied away from condemning human rights abuses in Iran.
Trash right-wing sites claim that this is because he appeared years ago on the Iranian English-language station Press TV (PTV) and had received a significant sum of money for doing so.
Yesterday, the SKWAWKBOX exclusively exposed fake news that repeated time and again by almost every mainstream media outlet that Corbyn appeared on PTV over a period of four years and accepted £20,000 for doing so. That turned out to have been a single year and a sum of somewhere between £1 and £5,000 – far less than Corbyn gives away each year to charity.
But that is not the limit of the mainstream fake news about Corbyn’s stance on Iran, as a series of graphics depicting his parliamentary activity regarding Iran puts beyond question:
The Corbyn 51
‘Early Day Motions’ (EDMs) are a means by which MPs can express their opinion – positive or negative – on matters of particular currency or interest to them.
Jeremy Corbyn has signed EDMs condemning human rights abuses no fewer than fifty-one times.
Among current MPs
Fifty-one times in isolation only tells part of the story, however. Without the context of how that compares to the behaviour of other MPs, it’s not entirely clear how significant that is.
The chart below shows Corbyn’s record among all current MPs of any party:
Jeremy Corbyn has put his name to more motions condemning Iran for human rights abuses than any other currently-serving MP except one.
The all-time list
Current MPs are one thing, but what about an all-time comparison? After all, MPs in the 1960s and 1970s would have been hearing about human rights or the lack of them under the regimes of the Shah and then Khomeini.
Let’s see:
In the all-time comparison, Corbyn ranks seventh. Only six MPs in history have been more active in Parliament in standing up for human rights in Iran.
Comment:
The attempts to smear Corbyn over Iran are the fakest of fake news.
Yet again, we see evidence that the main source of fake news is the Establishment and the ‘mainstream media’ that support it. Especially when it comes to Jeremy Corbyn.
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Do you have links to the actual EDMs? I’d like to read through them and be able to show them to people when they accuse JC of being soft on Iran’s human rights abuses.