‘I’m really interested about the similarities between me and Donald Trump,’ joked Jeremy Corbyn this morning on Marr. ‘Is it the hair or something?’ When the Labour leader expounded upon his Trump-esque analysis of the system that is rigged against the people, it turned out that the main difference between him and the American president was that he wants a series of constitutional reforms including overhaul of the House of Lords and more political representation of the North. Which doesn’t sound like the kind of thing you can shout at a rally, whether or not you have ludicrous hair.
Corbyn managed to dodge questions on how far Labour would pursue its own model for Brexit, using some pre-prepared soundbites about a ‘bargain basement economy on the shores of Europe’ and predicting ‘some kind of trade war with Europe’. At the end of the interview, he finally had a chance to explain what he meant at the start of the week when he tried to approach the thorny issue of freedom of movement. He eventually argued that it was important to access the European markets and that he didn’t think that Britain was going to cut itself off from those markets.
Labourites working in the Copeland by-election will be relieved that Corbyn has worked out a line that prevents him from having to say that he supports nuclear power or that he wants it scrapped altogether. Though it might help if he got the name of the new nuclear power station, Moorside, correct, rather than calling it ‘Moorfield’.
The main difference between Corbyn and Trump, it seems from this interview, is that Trump is able to paint in primary colours, whereas Corbyn’s palette is rather murkier.
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