PM's new national security adviser faces demands to disown his WIFE

Sir Keir Starmer's new national security is facing calls to disown social media posts by his wife after she promoted the views of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Jonathan Powell, who was previously Downing Street chief of staff under Sir Tony Blair, is due to take on the key role from next month.

But his appointment by the Prime Minister has come under scrutiny due to posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, by his wife Sarah Helm.

In one post, Ms Helm - a journalist and author - shared a video of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad speaking at the recent Arab-Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia.

'This is important. Assad is stepping up to the plate,' she commented on footage of the tyrannical leader.

According to a translated version of Mr al-Assad's speech shared by Ms Helm, he branded Israel an 'outlaw colonial entity'.

'We are not dealing with people in the civilized sense, but rather with herds of settlers that are closer to barbarism than to humanity,' he added.

Mr al-Assad also claimed Israel was 'afflicted with schizophrenia between hating Nazism abstractly and loving it as an organic part of itself in practice'.

In a previous social media post, Ms Helm accused Israel of pursuing 'ethnic cleansing of Palestinians'.

She also blasted the 'silence' of world leaders in response to 'genocide'.

There is no suggestion that Mr Powell, who worked for the Foreign Office for more than 15 years before becoming Sir Tony's chief aide, shares his wife's views. 

His appointment as Sir Keir's new national security adviser comes at crucial time given the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The veteran diplomat, who played a key role in brokering the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998, will replace Sir Tim Barrow in the role.

Ms Helm opposed the Iraq War while Mr Powell worked as a key aide for Mr Blair during the US-UK invasion in 2003.

The US, UK and EU oppose Mr al-Assad - an ally of Russian's Vladimir Putin and the Iranian regime - and continue to call on him to stand down as Syrian president.

He has been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons against his own people in his brutal response to the ongoing Syrian civil war.

A Tory source said Ms Helm's social media posts are 'deeply regrettable and seem to show more student union politics swirling around Labour's Government'.

They added: 'Did Labour do their due diligence before parachuting one of their Blairite apparatchiks into this important role?

'And will Powell now distance himself from them?'

Downing Street did not comment.