LABOUR Lord John Cryer has been called a “liar” after he abused parliamentary privilege to smear the Stop the War Coalition.

The anti-war movement responded to a speech by Mr Cryer in the Lords last week, in which the former MP alleged it had “strong links” to Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the Iranian government.

And independent MP Jeremy Corbyn said Stop the War was on the “right side of history” whereas Mr Cryer was not.

The former Labour leader told the Star: “Stop The War has mobilised hundreds of thousands of people who object to the killing of fellow human beings. 

”Our demonstrations are made up of every faith, every language and every background, united in a demand to end human suffering. 

“They are on the right side of history, just like they were on Iraq. Those who resort to baseless smears to discredit and distort a movement for peace are not.”

Stop the War said Mr Cryer had “disgracefully used parliamentary privilege to libel the Stop the War Coalition and we challenge him to make his allegations about us outside of the House of Lords.”

It called his claims about links to the two Middle East resistance organisations and the Tehran government “a lie.”

And it pointed out that “there is a real effort, from different sections of the Establishment and now this from a former left-Labour MP, who did not back a ceasefire in November 2023 when he was still in the House of Commons, to present pro-Palestine activists as Hamas supporters or anti-semites.

“He alleges we are an organisation which encourages anti-semitism, ‘whipping it up’ and preying on ‘perhaps relatively young minds’.

“The Establishment is still trying to weaponise accusations of anti-semitism against anyone who criticises Israel, but this has become much harder to pull off as support for Israel crumbles, even among its most ardent supporters on the Tory benches,” Stop the War said.

Mr Cryer did two stints as a Labour MP after a career in journalism, which included working for the Morning Star. He was an unsupportive chair of the parliamentary Labour party during Mr Corbyn’s leadership and after.

Having traversed a familiar path from left to right, he was ennobled after the last general election for services rendered.

In his Lords speech, he said Stop the War was “engaging in the incitement of racial hatred against Jewish people” and that “membership of any democratic party is incompatible with membership of Stop the War” or the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Mr Cryer did not respond to requests for comment in response to the Stop the War statement.