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Tories launch attack advert against Jeremy Corbyn set to sinister music

The video tries to paint Labour as a risk to national security

Jon Stone
Monday 14 September 2015 10:38 BST
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The Conservatives have launched a new attack video against Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The video, entitled “Labour: a threat to our national security”, lists four previous news stories regarding Mr Corbyn.

The video is set to sinister, unsettling music and features clips of Mr Corbyn filtered in black and white - interspersed with clips of Isis fighters.

The video is part of a new Conservative strategy which aims to paint Mr Corbyn as a “threat to national security”.

Though mocked on social media as over-the-top and out-of-context, commentators warned that the attack advert could cut through to the electorate.

Jeremy Corbyn was elected by a landslide on Saturday

Philip Cowley, Professor of Parliamentary Government at Nottingham University, tweeted: “[It] doesn’t matter how much that [Conservative] attack ad is mocked on here [Twitter].

“It’ll soon be all over Facebook feed of folks who don’t follow politics and who live in marginal seats.”

The stories listed include the fact Mr Corbyn wants to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system and a previous statement he made describing the execution without trial of Osama Bin Laden as a “tragedy”.

In the full version of that video, Mr Corbyn was in fact describing the use as extrajudicial killing as a “tragedy” rather than expressing sympathy for the Al Qaeda leader.

The film also features footage of a meeting with Hamas and Hebollah and a separate meeting which Mr Corbyn questions levels of military spending.

Mr Corbyn has previously defending meeting with Islamist groups, telling a hustings event during his leadership campaign that “You don’t achieve progress by only talking to people you agree with.”

On Sunday David Cameron said he believed that "Labour are now a serious risk to our nation's security, our economy's security and your family's security".

Labour did not immediately issue a response to the video.

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