DAN HODGES: Our last line of defence - Labour's MP's must declare war on Corbyn

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So it wasn’t all ‘fake news’ after all. Jeremy Corbyn is not a paid Russian agent. But as the events of last week proved, he is most certainly an agent of Russia.

Within minutes of Corbyn’s election as Labour leader in 2015 , Conservative HQ issued a campaign poster that made the incendiary claim that he was ‘a threat to our national security’. At the time it was roundly condemned as a sensationalist smear. But as we now know, it was merely a statement of fact.

Or indeed, a model of understatement. Not even the most malign practitioner of the dark political arts would dream up a scenario where the Leader of the Opposition stood at the House of Commons despatch box in the wake of a chemical weapons attack on the United Kingdom, and began mimicking the obfuscation and evasion of its perpetrators.

So it wasn’t all ‘fake news’ after all. Jeremy Corbyn is not a paid Russian agent. But as the events of last week proved, he is most certainly an agent of Russia

‘Jeremy has always been on the right side of history,’ his supporters like to boast. Well, it will be interesting to see how the history books record the moment their hero asked the Prime Minister if she was planning to let Vladimir Putin run tests to ascertain whether his own murderous hand had been behind the release of a deadly nerve agent in the middle of Wiltshire. Or gave his spokesman licence to publicly rubbish the findings of the Government’s own weapons experts. Or gave similar licence to his allies to spread crazed conspiracy theories about the nature of the attack, and brand as ‘enemies’ any Labour MP who backed Theresa May’s proportionate and measured response.

In reality, Corbyn is not on the right side of history. He has transcended history. There is no historical precedent for the events of the past seven days.

NEVER has the nation been subject to an attack from a foreign state without the leaders of the main British political parties uniting in clear, unequivocal condemnation of the aggressor. Attlee stood alongside Churchill. Foot stood alongside Thatcher. But Corbyn has chosen to turn his back on May. And in line with his long-standing personal ideology – and that of his most senior advisers – face towards Moscow.

Which means British politics is this morning in a state of limbo. The primary role of any government is the security of the nation. And the primary role of the official Opposition is to be a viable alternative government. It is binary. Any party unable to guarantee the former cannot fulfil the duties of the latter. Which in turn leaves Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet, MPs and party activists confronting a stark choice.

In the wake of his victory in the second leadership election, Labour moderates tried to maintain an uneasy co-existence with their Corbynite overlords. They justified this strategy to themselves on the basis of three arguments. First, that Corbyn could not conceivably win a General Election. Second, that in the unthinkable circumstances he did manage to win an election, it would only be because he had significantly moderated his extremist positions. And finally, that even if he somehow managed to win without moderating his positions, they themselves would be able to moderate them from around the Cabinet table, and from the backbenches.

The first of those self-justifications was shattered last June. The second was shattered by Corbyn’s craven performance in the House on Tuesday and Wednesday. And the third was shattered when a handful of Labour MPs rose to take issue with their leader.

In the aftermath of the statement, an Early Day Motion was drafted by Labour MP John Woodcock, distancing himself from Corbyn.

At the time of writing, more than 30 Labour MPs have signed it out of a total of 259 – the only ones prepared to formally register their protest at the spectacle of their own leader parroting the talking-points of Europe’s most dangerous, homophobic despot.

And if they are not prepared to take a unified stand against the loser in June, what chance would there be of them standing up to him in the wake of a future General Election triumph?

In any case, we are beyond Early Day Motions now. This is not a game. Vladimir Putin represents the greatest threat to European peace since Hitler. Forget the talk of attacks on our cyber-infrastructure or energy supplies. If there were to be a moment where Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump were to find themselves simultaneously in power, the temptation for Putin to test Nato’s resilience and effectiveness would be virtually irresistible.

It may well be that Corbyn has finally tested the tolerance of the British people to destruction

A real war – not a cyber war or a Cold War, but an actual shooting war – would become a genuine, if not inevitable, prospect.

Which brings us to the choice facing Labour’s moderates.

It may well be that Corbyn has finally tested the tolerance of the British people to destruction.

The first polls since his pusillanimous performance have shown a significant and negative public reaction. But we have been here before. And foreign policy issues rarely stick in the public consciousness for long. So now the moderates must finally align their actions and their principles. If, as they have stated, they believe Corbyn threatens the nation’s security, then they cannot continue to serve under him. They cannot continue to support him via their membership of his party.

And most importantly, they cannot continue to actively work to get him and his pro-Russian fellow travellers into Downing Street.

RESIGNING the whip. Setting up a new party. Tearing up their membership cards. These are no longer options facing Labour moderates. They have become the duty of every Labour moderate.

It is often stated the anti-Corbyn elements within Labour are impotent. But the opposite is true. In reality, Corbyn cannot secure power without them.

Even a small moderate split in the Labour vote would be terminal for him. They essentially exercise a veto over his ascent to power. And the time has come to exercise it.

Tribalism. Party loyalty. Genuine anger at the perceived injustices of the May government. These are all real. But they cannot supersede the primary responsibility of any party that aspires to govern. And that is to protect the nation state from external aggression.

There is no longer any doubt or ambiguity. Last week the charge was validated. Jeremy Corbyn is indeed a threat to our national security. And Labour’s moderates are now our final line of defence.