Jeremy Corbyn urges British public to protest in force when Donald Trump visits the UK
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Loading... - Genevieve Francoise
- 22 Dec 2020
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Jeremy Corbyn today urges protestors to turn out in force when Donald Trump visits the UK next year.
In an exclusive podcast for the Mirror , the Labour leader issues a stinging rebuke to the US president for giving publicity to the far right British First and pulling out of a global climate change agreement.
Mr Trump is due to make a flying visit to London in February to open the new US embassy.
Mr Corbyn says people should turn out to send the president “a clear message.”
“My message to Donald Trump is this you represent a country that has been through some amazing social transformation, from the growth of the civil rights movement, the way in which Martin Luther King stood up for the rights of black people and was assassinated for it.
Ayes to the Left podcast: Jeremy Corbyn reflects on his extraordinary year and talks about Labour’s plans for 2018
“And then you retweet stuff that is unbelievable and racist such as the stuff from Britain First. Please think of the people you have the honour to represent before you do that,” he says on the podcast.
He adds: “And I would also say you might have some disagreement with the Paris Climate Change Accord but you know what, you and I live on the same planet, you and I breathe the same air, you and I both rely on the same oceans.
“If you a very powerful world leader and support the climate change agreement and pursue an agenda of ending the pollution you will serve future generations well. But if you deregulate and allow it to get worse future generations will suffer and, you know, you might as well.”
Mr Corbyn also said Trump’s Muslim travel ban and the construction of the wall on the Mexican border were “quite awful.”
In a lengthy conversation at the end of a tumultuous political year, the Labour leader also reflects on his general election success.
He said he first became aware of his appeal when he visited Warrington at the beginning of the campaign.
“I was asked to start a canvassing session and they gave us the address which was for a semi detached house on an estate. And driving down the road there was a huge crowd in the garden and I thought that can’t be it. There must be a wedding on. But it was indeed the house and there were 200 or 230 people ready to go campaigning and they hadn’t even selected the candidate,” he recalls.
The Labour leader also believes there could still be another general election next year.
“I hope there will be one, I think there could be one. It depends very much on what happens in the tory party and how their strange relationship with the DUP develops,” he says.
On Brexit , he leaves open whether Labour will end up calling for the UK to stay in the customs union.
Keep option of staying in customs union on table?
“What we want and I think we have argued for fairly successfully is a transition period which keeps us fully in the customs union and single market
“We want something of equivalence of that and I have made that very clear to the many EU negotiators we have met.
“I don’t want us losing jobs, I recognize the will of the referendum and we don’t want this country going in the direction of some kind of low corporate tax environment on the shores of Europe which would undermine European economies as well as damage living standards here,” he says.
