Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong Euroskeptic, reportedly told
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that EU institutions are bad for
the poor.
The
Daily Mail – which calls the democratically-elected Maduro Corbyn’s
“dictator pal” – says the Labour leader made the comments in
2014, a year before he was elected party chief.
The
paper claims that a recording of a meeting between the two reveals
Corbyn telling the Latin American leader that European Central Bank
(ECB) policies are “detrimental to the poor of Britain and other
countries” and that the EU is a barrier to “building
socialism and the fight against capitalism.”
His
political mentor, the late socialist Labour MP Tony Benn, was very
much of the same stripe when it came to the EU.
Corbyn
reportedly referred to Benn during the interview, telling Maduro he
had been “a leader in the struggle against the economic policies
of the European Bank and others, which were detrimental to the poor
of Britain and other countries.”
“During
his life we discussed many times the problems for building socialism
and the fight against capitalism,” Corbyn said.
Questions
remain about how much of a revelation the comments really are.
Corbyn
was a well-known left-wing Euroskeptic for decades before he became
party leader in 2015.
However,
he campaigned for Remain during the EU Referendum according to the
democratic decision of his party, one of a series of concessions he
made to try to unite Labour during his tumultuous period in charge.
Labour
sources told the Mail on Wednesday that the party leader was
criticizing “the suffering inflicted on southern European
countries, especially Greece, through austerity.”
More
than 100 people are estimated to have lost their lives in violent
clashes between supporters of Maduro’s government and opposition
activists over the past four months.
The
opposition has ramped up its protest activity in the run-up to the
election of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), scheduled for
July 30, announcing a week of protests and launching a two-day
nationwide strike that kicked off on Wednesday.
Maduro
has blamed the US for trying to deliberately destabilize the country.
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