Election 2019: Australia fears Jeremy Corbyn security risk

Australia’s former envoy to London has warned that Canberra would severely limit intelligence-sharing with the United Kingdom if Jeremy Corbyn wins the general election.

In a controversial intervention Alexander Downer, a former foreign minister and until 18 months ago Australia’s high commissioner to London, warned that a Corbyn government would force a reassessment of the security relationship between the two countries. Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra on Brexit, Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister said that Mr Corbyn and those around him were “unsympathetic to and hostile to western interests”.

He said if Mr Corbyn became prime minister, the sharing of intelligence with the UK through Five Eyes — the intelligence-gathering alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the United States — would be reduced. “We would substantially wind it back. We would have to be very careful what sort of intelligence we shared with the [UK] government, we would have to be very careful because of the foreign policy stance of Jeremy Corbyn and the cohorts around him,” Mr Downer said......