Daily Mail
Sir Michael Fallon was humbled on live TV today as he was ambushed during an attack on Jeremy Corbyn by revelations he attended a party with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry embarrassed the Defence Secretary as the pair shared the sofa at the end of the BBC Andrew Marr Show today.
Sir Michael renewed Tory criticism of the Labour leader's support for Irish republican terrorists following new revelations today about him being arrested at a protest in support of the IRA protest in the aftermath of the Brighton bombing.
But he was interrupted by Ms Thornberry, who asked him to reveal where he was on 27 May, 2007.
She did not mention Mr Corbyn has himself met the Syrian dictator on at least one occasion, in 2009.
As Sir Michael scrambled to defend himself, the shadow foreign secretary accused him of talking 'b*******'.
Sir Michael said he did not know - only for the senior Labour politician to inform viewers he had been in Damascus at a victory rally for Assad, who had recently secured 99 per cent in an 'election'.
The Defence Secretary insisted the situation was different because Syria was an ally at the time.
Ms Thornberry claimed the Tories were 'making up' claims about Mr Corbyn's support for the IRA - despite his well documented support for a united Ireland and welcoming of Gerry Adams to Parliament.
The extraordinary exchange began as Marr outlined the media reports today about Mr Corbyn and Sir Michael said the Labour leader wanted to be Prime Minister and that this was a 'risk'.
Ms Thornberry then questioned: 'If you judge people by who it is they spend time with, the question has to be - do you remember where you were on 27 May 2007?'
Mr Fallon responded: 'I'm sure you're going to tell me'.
She replied: 'Yes I am. You were in Syria and you were celebrating at a reception for the re-election of President Assad with 99% of the vote.
'Now, I'm not going to judge you for going to a reception with Assad.
'And I don't think people should judge Jeremy for trying to talk to people who might be open to a settlement in Northern Ireland.'
Mr Fallon admitted he went to Syria on an all-party visit and shook the autocrat's hand, but insisted: 'I don't recall any party in Syria. I remember a fact-finding visit to Syria.'
Sir Michael Fallon was forced to defend the Government's record on military recruitment today.
The Defence Secretary was accused of braking a manifesto promise as army numbers sat at 79,000, below the Government's pledge of keeping the numbers at 82,000.
He said: 'First of all we cannot force people to join the army, we don't have conscription in this country, the army has to compete with other sectors in the economy.
'It was a promise over the parliament, over the five years, we are only two years into the old parliament and I can assure you that we are spending a lot of money on recruiting but also on giving the armed forces the equipment they need.'
Told the reception he attended was to celebrate Assad's re-election, he said: 'Nonsense.
'There's a huge moral difference between talking to other foreign leaders… and Jeremy Corbyn 's quite open support for the IRA.'
But Ms Thornberry refused to give up and continued her ambush on Sir Michael.
She jumped in, saying: 'You really can't just go around making this stuff up.
'There's an election and people need to make decisions on the basis of the truth.'
'You have just said for example I want to negotiate the future of the Falklands. That is b*****ks!'
The reports Marr referred to were a Sunday Times investigation revealing Mr Corbyn was arrested in 1986 taking part in a protest by IRA sympathisers to 'show solidarity' with accused terrorists including the Brighton bomber.
Mr Corbyn joined a picket outside the Old Bailey to oppose the 'show trial' of a group including Patrick Magee, who was subsequently convicted of murdering five people at the 1984 Tory party conference.
During a separate interview on the Marr show, Ms Thornberry agreed negotiations could be needed over the Falklands if a new invasion was threatened and Britain should not be 'gung-ho', saying: 'You have to look at the alternatives first.'
But she added: 'If we're under attack we defend ourselves.'
Labour leader Mr Corbyn has himself met the Syrian president.
He visited Syria in 2009 on a trip paid for by Palestinian lobbyists and later paid tribute to Syria's accommodation of refugees in Parliament.
Both Mr Fallon and Mr Corbyn's trips came years before uprisings against Assad began and then descended into brutal civil war.
For a time, Syria was an ally and in 2002 Assad made an official visit to Britain, which included a meeting with the Queen.