Prospect of Jeremy Corbyn as PM 'makes me tremble', says former Tory minister

Sir Malcolm Rifkind said the Labour leader's approach to national security leaves a 'huge gap to be desired'

The prospect of Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street “makes me tremble”, the former Conservative cabinet minister Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said.

The former defence secretary’s remarks came as he claimed Russia was using “classic” attempts in recent days to obfuscate over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury last month.

But asked whether intelligence shared with foreign governments to convince them to take action against Russia should be shared with the Labour leader, Sir Malcolm said: “I don't necessarily have a strong view on that, because frankly Mr Corbyn's rather doubtful in terms of the way he deals with issues of this kind.”

On Tuesday the security minister Ben Wallace had said Mr Corbyn had seen more intelligence “than the average backbench MP” due to his membership of the Privy Council, but that some evidence had not been shared.

Sir Malcolm also took aim at Mr Corbyn suggesting his approach to national security leaves a “huge gap to be desired”, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “And the idea that somebody like that might one day be in Downing Street makes me tremble, if I even thought it was serous.”

Mr Corbyn had already made up his mind and was “already saying that he's on the same side, essentially, as the Russians on this particular matter”, added Sir Malcolm.

Former defence secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Getty)

He said: “They [Russia] are in a very serious position, because it's not just the United Kingdom that has taken action against them.

“In an unprecedented way that didn't happen during the Cold War, 29 countries have withdrawn their diplomats.

“So what we're seeing at the moment is exactly what they did when they were found cheating with the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, and they were expelled from that.

“When they were seen to be using their troops to annex Crimea, denying it at first. It's classic Russian attempts to obfuscate and it's not working.”