British P.M. challenger shows he will not pander to Trump
Corbyn critical of president, while May careful about U.S. relationship
Voters have a stark choice in Britain’s national election Thursday: a leader sure to clash with Donald Trump and one determined to get along with the American president.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, 68, the left-wing underdog, has assailed Trump at every opportunity. Prime Minister Theresa May, 60, whose Conservatives hope to come out on top, has gone to great lengths to court Trump and keep the U.S.-British “special relationship” alive despite his numerous slights against her country, its capital city here and its mayor.
“It is very, very difficult to imagine Trump and Jeremy Corbyn getting on,” said Timothy Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “They are somewhat similar in age, I guess we can say that (Trump is two years older), and so maybe they like the same kind of music?”
The latest polls show a narrow victory in parliamentary elections for May’s party, down from a wide lead just weeks ago. A Trump-like upset by Corbyn would guarantee a rocky U.S.-U.K. relationship. Corbyn has promised to confront Trump with a long list of complaints ranging from insults of London Mayor Sadiq Khan to his withdrawal from the Paris accord to combat global warming.
In a foreign policy speech last month in London, Corbyn said Trump was making an already dangerous world even more perilous. Trump “seems determined to add to the dangers by recklessly escalating the confrontation with North Korea, unilaterally launching missile strikes on Syria, opposing President Obama’s nuclear arms deal with Iran and backing a new nuclear arms race,” he said.
“The U.S. is the strongest military power on the planet by a very long way. It has a special responsibility to use its power with care and to support international efforts to resolve conflicts collectively and peacefully,” Corbyn added.
He said he understood Britain needed to have a strong relationship with the U.S., but that if elected he would not be afraid to speak his mind. “Pandering to an erratic Trump administration will not deliver stability.”
May, by contrast, appears to be a Trump fan — at least in public. When she visited Washington in January, May held hands briefly with the president as the two leaders walked down the colonnade of the White House. And she has tempered her criticism of him on issues of disagreement, such as trade and climate change, and his sexist comments about women that surfaced during last year’s campaign.
One clear difference in Corbyn’s and May’s handling of Trump is their reactions after the president mischaracterized Khan’s comments after Saturday night’s terror attacks and said the London mayor’s reassurance to residents was “pathetic.”
“It is the strength of our communities that gets us through these awful times, as London Mayor Sadiq Khan recognized, but which the current occupant in the White House has neither the grace nor the sense to grasp,” Corbyn said in defense of his fellow Labour Party politician.
May was more tactful: “I think Sadiq is doing an excellent good job,” later adding that what Trump said was “wrong.”
“The current British government is reluctant to criticize the White House in any way,” said Bale. “Anything from May will be mild and muted compared to Corbyn.”
Bale said one area that might be especially tricky is nuclear weapons. “Corbyn is known to oppose them and clearly that’s not something the U.S. would be keen on.”
Despite his attacks on Trump, Corbyn shares some similar views. Both profess to be isolationists who are skeptical of international organizations such as the European Union and NATO.
And they have some personality quirks in common: Both have resisted pleas by some in their parties to be more statesmanlike in their behavior and more consistent with their party’s positions.
During Britain’s referendum on leaving the EU a year ago, Corbyn refused to say he wanted Britain to stay in the alliance, even though that was his party’s official position. The public voted narrowly to leave the EU.