No such thing as a special relationship between Britain and the US, says Corbyn

JEREMY CORBYN has suggested that the “special relationship” with the US does not exist and said that links with the EU, India, and China are just as important.

The Labour leader said he is “not sure that anyone has succeeded in defining the special relationship” as he denied that the US is Britain’s most important partner.

He criticised the “endless offensive remarks” by Donald Trump about women, minorities and different faiths as Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, called the US president a “racist”.

Mr Corbyn told ITV’S Peston on Sunday: “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 United Nations is very important. The biggest disappointment of Donald Trump is, apart from his endless offensive remarks about women, about minorities and about different faiths, is his failure to support international institutions like the United Nations and like Unesco.”

Mr Corbyn did acknowledge that having a relationship with and influence over the US was important “because it is such a huge military and economic power around the world”.

He added: “I’m not sure that 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, I won’t name the person, that if they specified what the special relationship was, it wouldn’t be a special relationship.”

This week Mr Trump said he was cancelling a proposed visit to open the new US embassy in London, saying the new embassy was a “bad deal”.

However, reports have suggested he called off his trip because he felt he had “not been shown enough love” by the British Government.