NATO found a new friend today as Labour’s panicking right-wing rallied to the support of the US-led war alliance.

A group of MPs, peers, academics and sundry grifters founded Labour Friends of Nato to solidify backing for the increasingly strained pact.

MPs who have signed up include Luke Akehurst, Dan Carden, Calvin Bailey and Jo White, with John Spellar, Tom Watson and former TUC general secretary John Monks among the peers.

Its main organiser is veteran pro-imperialist campaigner Gary Kent, a long-time champion of the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq, and other supporters include former Trotskyist turned arms company think tanker Paul Mason.

The group will promote the case for Britain’s continuing membership of the crumbling bloc, and will organise “fact-finding” propaganda tours to its headquarters in Brussels.

Defence Secretary John Healey welcomed the initiative, claiming: “Nato remains the bedrock of British interests and our security as citizens.”