THE West’s “war on terror” has failed, Jeremy Corbyn has insisted, as he made clear Labour was committed to a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy.

In a keynote speech, the party leader insisted defence policy under a Labour government would be “made in Britain”.

Decrying a “bomb first, talk later” approach to foreign policy, Mr Corbyn declared: “Britain deserves better than simply outsourcing our country’s security and prosperity to the whims of the Trump White House. So no more hand holding with Donald Trump. A Labour Government will conduct a robust and independent foreign policy.”

He denounced the US administration for "recklessly" endangering global security through interventions in North Korea and Syria while opposing his predecessor Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.

Among his party’s proposals for power, the Labour leader told the Chatham House international affairs think tank in London that Labour would appoint a Minister for Peace and undertake an immediate review of RAF bombing raids in Syria and Iraq.

After claims from Tory high command that he was a pacifist, Mr Corbyn insisted he was not, saying: “I accept that military action, under international law and as a genuine last resort, is in some circumstances necessary.

“But that is very far from the kind of unilateral wars and interventions that have almost become routine in recent times.”

Asked which conflict since World War Two, to which UK forces had been deployed,, had he supported, Mr Corbyn replied: “There are deployments, largely through the United Nations, which are the right thing to do…East Timor; there has been the great help done in the peacekeeping in Cyrpus by British forces and there has been incredible work done by Royal Marines and others in helping refugees to survive who have been at risk in the Mediterranean.”

The Conservatives sought to rubbish the Labour leader’s speech with Boris Johnson saying Mr Corbyn was "a guy who has campaigned all his life to weaken the UK's defences".

During campaigning in Newport in South Wales, the Foreign Secretary said: "He thinks Nato is nonsense. I think he is still the chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and I find it genuinely alarming that just last month when we sent the advanced forward presence to shore up our friends in the Baltic and UK troops went to Estonia, he said that was an escalation of tensions.

"What this country needs is a strong, clear and robust approach to our defences and I am afraid Jeremy Corbyn's approach is chaotic and offers the reverse."

In his speech, the Labour leader insisted it was time for “fresh thinking” on defence and foreign policy.

"Today the world is more unstable than even at the height of the Cold War. The approach to international security we have been using since the 1990s simply has not worked," he said.

"Regime change wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria - and Western interventions in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen - haven't always succeeded in their own terms. Sometimes they have made the world a more dangerous place."

Mr Corbyn said it was the fourth general election in a row during which the UK had been at war.

"The fact is the war on terror, which has driven these interventions, has not succeeded. It has not increased our security at home. In fact, many would say, just the opposite."

Senior members of Mr Corbyn's frontline team were present for the speech, including Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Baroness Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney General.

However, Nia Griffith, the Shadow Defence Secretary, whose support for the Trident nuclear deterrent is at odds with her leader, was notably absent from the event.

On Trident, Mr Corbyn said: “I am often asked if as Prime Minister I would order the use of nuclear weapons.

“It’s an extraordinary question when you think about it; would you order the indiscriminate killing of millions of people? Would you risk such extensive contamination of the planet that no life could exist across large parts of the world?

“If circumstances arose where that was a real option, it would represent complete and cataclysmic failure. It would mean world leaders had already triggered a spiral of catastrophe for humankind.”

He went on: “Labour is committed actively to pursue disarmament under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and we are committed to no first use of nuclear weapons.

“But let me make this absolutely clear. If elected Prime Minister, I will do everything necessary to protect the safety and security of our people and our country. That would be my first duty.

“And to achieve it, I know I will have to work with other countries to solve problems, defuse tensions and build collective security.”

He added: “The best defence for Britain is a government actively engaged in seeking peaceful solutions to the world’s problems.”