Labour left breaks with Jeremy Corbyn over sending weapons to Ukraine

John McDonnell among former shadow cabinet members contradicting pacifist message

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Senior Labour MPs on the left of the party are putting themselves at odds with former leader Jeremy Corbyn over the war in Ukraine by calling on the Ministry of Defence to do more to arm Kyiv against the Russians.

This weekend the MP for Norwich South, Clive Lewis, a former territorial army officer and shadow defence secretary under Corbyn, questioned why the MoD was selling used Apache helicopters on the open market rather than giving them to the Ukrainians “in their hour of need”.