In a closed-door discussion last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted the veil on plans to prevent a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government from coming to power in Britain.

In an audio recording of a meeting held last Tuesday with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Pompeo is asked if Corbyn “is elected, would you be willing to work with us to take on actions if life becomes very difficult for Jews in the UK?”

Pompeo replied, “It could be that Mr. Corbyn manages to run the gauntlet and get elected. It’s possible. You should know, we won’t wait for him to do those things to begin to push back. We will do our level best … It’s too risky and too important and too hard once it’s already happened.”

The recording was leaked to the Washington Post, which notes that Pompeo received “fervent applause from attendees” for these comments.

The statements were made as US President Donald Trump was in Britain during his three-day state visit. Pompeo’s sinister language confirms that moves to remove Corbyn from the political scene before he is ever allowed to take power are being actively discussed.

Extreme right-wing and fascistic elements have been behind the moves to remove Corbyn from the outset. Central to the “Get Corbyn” operation, in place since the day he was elected Labour leader in September 2015, were the US intelligence services—in league with MI5, MI6 and the Israeli government and its intelligence agency, Mossad.

The operation has been organised via the Blairite faction of the Labour Party, backed by the ruling Conservative Party and leading representatives of the military.

The Socialist Equality Party warned in 2016 that the “putsch against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is being mounted by a right-wing cabal, working in intimate collusion with the security services in Britain and the United States.”

Last year, opposing the resuscitation of the campaign to smear Corbyn and Labour members as anti-Semites by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and a clique of right-wing Labour MPs, we noted, “The organisations and Blairite MP’s involved in this latest provocation have deep connections to Israel and the US and British intelligence services.”

Pompeo didn’t outline what would be required to prevent Corbyn from being elected and what a “push-back” against him would involve. But senior figures in the UK military have already made clear what they are prepared to carry out: a coup d'état along the lines of that which the CIA engineered in Chile in 1973 that ended with the murder of elected social-democrat leader Salvador Allende and thousands of his supporters.

Just a week after being elected Labour leader, with the backing of hundreds of thousands of Labour members and supporters, the Sunday Times carried comments from a “senior serving general” that in the event of Corbyn becoming prime minister, there would be “the very real prospect” of “a mutiny.”

The general revealed that the military would be prepared to use “whatever means possible, fair or foul.” He warned, “You would see a major break in convention with senior generals directly and publicly challenging Corbyn over vital important policy decisions such as Trident [nuclear weapons], pulling out of NATO and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces.”

Just a few months later, Britain’s then Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Nicholas Houghton, asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr about Corbyn’s statement that he would never authorise the use of nuclear weapons, replied, “Well, it would worry me if that thought was translated into power.”

In recent weeks, the Blairites have deepened their offensive to smear Corbyn and the wider left as supporters of anti-Semitism. Leaving the Labour Party in April to set up their now almost defunct Change UK group—which a number of them have since abandoned—the Blairites involved, such as Luciana Berger and Mike Gapes, said that Labour had become a “sickeningly institutionally racist” party (Berger) under Corbyn, and a “racist, anti-Semitic party” (Gapes).

Following the expulsion last month from the party of Blair’s former spin-doctor, Alastair Campbell—after voting in violation of Labour’s rulebook for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections—complained he was being disciplined while party members he described as anti-Semites were not.

The questioning of Pompeo by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations took place just one week after the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced it would launch an official inquiry under section 20 of the Equality Act 2006, into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

The Commission has extraordinary legal powers and its inquiry could well end up in criminal proceedings against the Labour Party. Were criminal proceedings to follow, this would inevitably be used by Zionist groups to make bogus claims that it is now “very difficult for Jews in the UK,” as a precursor to forcing Corbyn’s ousting.

Everyone knows that Corbyn is not and has never been an anti-Semite. He is being targeted, utilising filthy lies and slanders, because US and British imperialism will not allow a government to come to office that is in any way associated with the denunciations of imperialism and NATO that Corbyn once articulated.

The forces attacking Corbyn fear that if he won office—under conditions of growing social polarisation set to escalate under Brexit—millions of workers and youth would demand he make good on previous pledges to oppose austerity, militarism, war and attacks on democratic rights.

So servile is Corbyn, that while aiming a few jibes at Trump during his state visit, he offered to meet him to discuss the struggle for “peace.” Yet despite Corbyn’s capitulations before his party’s right wing, including affirming support for NATO and the Trident nuclear programme, Washington has concluded that the Labour leader would be incapable of keeping this emerging shift to the left among broad masses under control.

Pompeo’s latest attack must be seen in the context of his denunciation of Corbyn—on these very issues—made just last month. Prior to Trump’s visit, Pompeo held talks with senior figures in the May government. During a press conference in London, he was asked by a right-wing website his thoughts on Corbyn’s “endorsement” of the Maduro government and his statement opposing “outside interference” in Venezuela.

Pompeo replied, “It is disgusting to see leaders, in not only the United Kingdom, but the United States as well, who continue to support the murderous dictator Maduro. … It is not in either of our country’s best interests for those leaders to continue to advocate on their behalf.”

In order words, anyone who even indicates the slightest opposition to imperialist wars and regime change operations cannot be allowed to take office.

In response to the revelations that the US government is seriously contemplating his removal, an anonymous Labour “spokesman” issued a pro-forma statement. Instead of denouncing the lies told by the right that Corbyn facilitates anti-Semitism, his spokesman reassured the Post that Labour is “fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism in any form.”

Such statements made ad nauseum by the Corbynites for the last four years have done precisely nothing to stop the right’s ferocious onslaught.