Not that special ... Corbyn’s latest snub to American allies
JEREMY Corbyn cast doubt on the special relationship with the US yesterday, saying it is not the most important that Britain has with another country.
The Labour leader even appeared to suggest the special relationship might not exist when he said he was ‘not sure that anyone has succeeded’ in defining it.
He also criticised Donald Trump’s ‘endless offensive remarks’, while his shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry branded the US President a dangerous racist and an ‘asteroid of awfulness’.
Appearing on ITV’s Peston On Sunday, Mr Corbyn was asked if Britain’s relationship with the US was the most important it has with another country.
He replied: ‘No. I think there are many important relationships.
‘The US one is obviously culturally and economically significant and important.
‘Also the trading relationships we have around the world with obviously the EU, but also with India and China and the rest of the world, are very important.
‘Also our relationship with international institutions such as the UN is very important.’
He added: ‘The biggest disappointment of Donald Trump – apart from his endless offensive remarks about women, about minorities and about different faiths – is his failure to support international institutions like the UN and like Unesco.’ Mr Corbyn acknowledged having a relationship with the US was important ‘because it is such a huge military and economic power around the world’. But he said: ‘I’m not sure anyone has succeeded in defining the special relationship.
‘I’ve asked about the special relationship and I was told once by a former prime minister… that if they specified what the special relationship was, it wouldn’t be a special relationship.’
Labour was accused of putting the special relationship ‘at risk’ last week after senior figures gloated at Mr Trump’s decision to cancel a visit to Britain next month to open the new US embassy.
However, Mr Corbyn said yesterday: ‘He’s going to come at some point, I suppose – he is the President of the US.’
Mr Corbyn has been a frequent critic of Mr Trump, and last month urged protesters to turn out in force to send him ‘a clear message’ if his planned visit went ahead.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Miss Thornberry was scathing about the US President after reports that he had branded Haiti and some African states ‘s**thole’ countries.
Welcoming the cancellation of his visit, she said: ‘He is an asteroid of awfulness that has fallen on this world. I think he is a danger and I think he is a racist.’
On the same show, Tory chairman Brandon Lewis said it was right that Mr Trump had been invited, and Britain should develop its relationship with the US.
PICTURE the scene at the Foreign Office in a not-too- distant dystopian future. The British electorate has abandoned all reason and voted in a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn. Equally chilling, Emily Thornberry has been installed as Foreign Secretary.
She is told by mandarins that an invitation has been extended to the US President for a state visit. So would she honour it?
Judging by her sneering denunciation of Donald Trump yesterday, only if the President is a sanctimonious, politicallycorrect liberal like herself. If he’s a brash Right-winger, he’s persona non grata – despite being leader of the world’s most powerful democracy and a hugely important trading partner.
Describing Mr Trump as ‘an asteroid of awfulness that has fallen on this world’, Miss Thornberry proved conclusively that she knows nothing about diplomacy.
When will she and her virtue-signalling friends understand that Mr Trump has been invited here not because of who he is but because of what he is? The invitation is not an endorsement of his personal politics. It’s a hand of friendship to a great nation.
Through Nato, America has done more than any country to guarantee peace in Europe since 1945 and has been a staunch ally for over a century. But because they don’t like its current leader, Labour’s hate mob shuns it. (Strangely, they are outraged by Mr Trump’s inane tweets yet silent on the genuine human rights abuses in Iran, Russia and of course Marxist Venezuela).
If we could entertain such tyrants as Mugabe and Ceausescu, how can we possibly refuse Mr Trump the same courtesy?
Mr Corbyn questioned yesterday whether the special relationship between Britain and the US even exists. If he ever becomes prime minister, it certainly won’t – and Britain will pay the price in lost trade and jobs.
Meanwhile, the Labour leader is tightening his grip on the party. Three new places have been created on the national executive, all of which are expected to go to hard-Left candidates, and a moderate parliamentary candidate in Northampton has been ousted in favour of a Corbynista – almost certainly the first of many.
And for all its cant about sexism, Labour has reinstated Clive Lewis to its front bench after dismissing allegations that he groped a young female activist at a Momentum event. And Mr Corbyn himself refused to condemn shadow chancellor John McDonnell for calling Tory minister Esther McVey ‘a stain on humanity’.
How could anyone imagine this hypocritical, incompetent, deeply unpleasant party ever being fit to govern Britain?