Challenger in British election shows his disdain for Trump
Corbyn is critical while May takes care to cultivate good 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” healthy.
“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 predict a narrow victory in parliamentary elections for May’s party, down from a wide lead weeks ago.
An upset by Corbyn would increase the likelihood of 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 a 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 said.
He said he understands Britain needs to have a strong relationship with the United States, but if elected, he would not be afraid to speak his mind.
“Pandering to an erratic Trump administration will not deliver stability,” he said.
May has a warmer public relationship with Trump. When she visited Washington in January, she held hands briefly with the president as the two leaders walked down the colonnade of the White House. She has tempered her criticism of him about issues on which they disagree, such as trade and climate change, and his sexist comments about women that surfaced during last year’s election campaign.
One clear difference in Corbyn’s and May’s approach to Trump is their reactions after the president said London Mayor Khan’s reassurance to residents was “pathetic” after terror attacks Saturday night in the capital.
“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, she said that what Trump said was “wrong.”
“The current British government is reluctant to criticize the White House in any way,” Bale said. “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,” he said, “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.
They also 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.