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Jeremy Corbyn is a hypocrite for refusing to attend Trump state banquet

3 min read

Jeremy Corbyn's decision to snub a state banquet being held to mark Donald Trump's visit to the UK in June is hypocritical, says Ian Austin MP.


Jeremy Corbyn has refused to attend a dinner with President Trump.

You don’t have to be a fan of the American President to think the Labour leader is a dishonest, sanctimonious hypocrite.

Donald Trump has said some terrible things about Muslims and women and defended racist extremists in Charlottesville, but Jeremy Corbyn is in no position to complain after spending 40 years supporting all sorts of extremists and in some cases terrorists and racists.

It's a shame he's not always been so choosy. He’s refusing to attend a dinner for the leader of our closest ally when he attended one for China’s President Xi - who leads a brutal dictatorship with no elections, human rights or free speech. 

He took thousands of pounds for presenting shows on the Iranian state TV channel, a country which executes people who disagree with the government regime, hangs gay men from cranes and imprisons British citizens. 

He travelled to Syria to speak to the brutal Syrian dictator Assad. According to Corbyn, the avowedly anti-semitic terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah are “friends” who should be invited to Parliament.

He even laid a wreath at the graveside of the people who planned the butchery of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

He calls Trump a racist but under Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party has become mired in anti-semitism. Let’s not mince words: this is racism against Jewish people. Racism, pure and simple.

Jewish members have been subjected to the most appalling racist abuse. Jewish women MPs have been told they don’t have human blood. Some have faced terrible, violent threats. One woman MP even needed police protection at the Labour Party conference and Labour members have been arrested on suspicion of racial hatred.

Incredibly, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission – an official, statutory Government body - is now investigating the Labour Party.

This crisis was triggered by the shocking discovery that Corbyn defended a grotesque racist mural with disgusting caricatures of Jewish people painted on a wall in East London and even questioned whether Jewish people – he called them Zionists – understood British irony, as if they are somehow different from the rest of us.

What right has he got to complain about Donald Trump? Corbyn can always be relied on to support our country’s enemies. He and John McDonnell cannot be trusted with our national security and would undermine our democratic institutions. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a brutal gangster who runs a corrupt dictatorship which locks up, intimidates and even murders opponents and journalists, loots the country and impoverishes ordinary Russians. But when he sent hitmen to murder people on the streets of Britain, Corbyn parroted the Kremlin’s denials.

They supported the IRA when they were planting bombs and murdering people in shopping centres, hotels and pubs.

I left the Labour Party because I think Jeremy Corbyn is unfit to lead the Labour Party and our country. And whatever you think of Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn has no right to condemn anyone else for extremism or racism.

 

Ian Austin is the independent MP for Dudley

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Read the most recent article written by Lord Austin of Dudley - Lords Diary: Lord Austin