Nato membership will not be up for discussion in Labour's defence policy review

Some figures in the party are cool on the alliance, however

British troops have been carrying out military exercises with Nato in the Baltic states (Getty Images)

The UK’s membership of Nato will not be up for discussion in Labour’s upcoming review of defence policies, the party has announced.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn expressed criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and during the party’s leadership contenst and said he was no in favour of its expansion eastwards.

He has stopped short of saying he would take the UK out of the grouping however, previously saying there was “no appetite” for such a move.

Nato is a military alliance. Membership of the alliance means that if one country in the group is attacked, all countries are required to take part in mutual a military response to any aggression.

The alliance was previously set up by the Western powers to oppose the Eastern Bloc nations, but since the fall of the USSR countries formerly in Russia’s sphere of influencem including the Baltic States and Poland, have joined.

A number of European countries are not members of Nato, including Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland.

Advocates of Nato membership credit the alliance with keeping the peace in Europe since WWII. Its opponents say it could let foreign countries drag the UK into an unwanted war.

Ken Livingstone has been criticial of Nato, as has Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Getty Images)

“The terms of the defence review are still to be agreed but will not look at our membership of Nato,” a Labour spokesperson said.

Labour has previously committed to meeting the alliance 2 per cent GDP spending on defence target.

The announcement comes after Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London and an ally of Mr Corbyn, said it didn’t matter whether the UK was in the alliance or not.

“My main view on this is it doesn’t matter whether you are in Nato or not terribly much because the Cold War is over,” he said.

“The question is, if you are going to stay in Nato, what is its role going to be? Is it going to be invading more countries in the Middle East? I’m not in favour of that.”

The SNP previously advocated withdrawal from Nato but narrowly voted to scrap the policy in 2012.