Richard Tice has accused Labour of “appeasing communists in its party” after Sir Keir Starmer failed to categorically back Donald Trump’s airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital.
The US Commander-in-Chief launched a 30-minute-long aerial blitz on the city of Caracas in the early hours of Saturday during which officials captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and shipped the couple to New York.
There, the pair face narco-terrorism charges and have been indicted in the Southern District of New York, with footage showing the dictator being perp-walked into custody upon his arrival.
But Sir Keir has so far steered clear of explicitly condemning or lauding Mr Trump’s action in South America.
He has said his Government will “shed no tears” over the end of Maduro’s regime, which was littered with human rights violations and economic turmoil.
In a statement on Saturday evening, Sir Keir said: “The UK has long supported a transition of power in Venezuela.
“We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime. I reiterated my support for international law this morning.”
But Reform’s second-in-command was quick to take aim at Labour this morning after Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones dodged Camilla’s question over the matter on seven occasions.
“It’s just extraordinary,” Mr Tice said. “He just won’t answer a basic question.
Richard Tice has accused Labour of ‘appeasing communists in its party’
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GB NEWS
He continued: “Obviously they’ve got their own left wingers to appease and the communists in their own party and the hard socialists don’t like it.
“This is good news for the West. Who it’s uncomfortable for is the socialists and the communists and people like Putin and the Chinese communist regime, because they’ve been supporting Maduro, who’s a huge supporter of Putin.
“And quite rightly, America has said he’s a threat to US interests, and that’s why they’ve done it.
“They’re entitled to do it under US domestic law. It’s about oil. It’s about links. It’s about it’s all about the US national security interest and that actually is also in our interest.
DONALD TRUMP TAKES ON VENEZUELA – READ MORE:
Sir Keir said the Labour Government will ‘shed no tears’ over the end of Maduro’s regime
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“For example, hopefully it’ll disrupt the vast amount of cocaine that comes out of Venezuela, coming to the UK and Europe.
“I’m not saying it’s going to solve it, but this was not a legitimate president. This was an illegitimate and brutal drug lord.
“Look, lawyers can argue it. The reality is that the people who are who will be anxious and uncomfortable about this are the communists in China and Putin in Russia.”
Yesterday, left-wingers outside Sir Keir’s party, including Greens leader Zack Polanski and ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, piled pressure on the Prime Minister to condemn the “kidnapping” of the dictator.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the strikes as an “act of armed aggression”, Mr Corbyn blasted the operation as an “unprovoked and illegal attack” against Venezuela.
“This is a brazen attempt to secure control over Venezuelan natural resources,” the Islington MP said.
“It is an act of war that puts the lives of millions of people at risk — and should be condemned by anyone who believes in sovereignty and international law.”
Meanwhile, the Green Party leader said: “The PM and Foreign Secretary should be condemning this illegal strike and breach of international human rights law.
“After years of arming a genocide and worshipping the ‘special relationship’, Trump now believes he can act with impunity.”