Donald Trump should think on about fuelling far right hate and create a better and more peaceful world, Jeremy Corbyn has said as the US president met with the prime minister.
Addressing a mass rally against the US president in central London, the Labour leader lambasted Trump, claiming he has no answers to the world’s crises, including 65 million refugees, climate change and poverty.
Corbyn, who faced criticism for boycotting the state banquet attended by Trump, he was willing to meet the president hoping to have that dialogue about politics but said he was very disappointed by the president’s “attack” on London’s muslim mayor Sadiq Khan.
Looking out at a sea of ‘Dump Trump’ placards on Whitehall, Corbyn thanked everyone for being there, adding: “Look around this crowd. Look at each other. We are young, we are old, we are black, we are white, we are disabled, we’re LGBT.
The leader of the opposition, who has been accused of hostility toward the US, said he would meet Trump, adding: I hope there can be a conversation. I am absolutely not refusing to meet anyone. I am hoping to have that dialogue to bring about the better and more peaceful world that we all want to live in.
When you have created that sense of hate, when you have destroyed people’s self-esteem by those forms of racism, do you know what? you haven’t built a house, you haven’t built a school, you haven’t trained a nurse, you haven’t defended our natural world, all you have done is create a sense of hate and hatred that goes with it.
He told the crowd: We won’t stand for that. We will fight for that with every last breath of our body to defend the principle of a healthcare system as free at the point of need as a human right.
Then, in a direct message to Trump, Corbyn continued: So I say to our visitors that have arrived this week: think on please about a world that is one of peace and disarmament, is one of recognising the values of all people, is a world that defeats racism, defeats misogyny, defeats religious hatreds that have been fuelled by the far right in politics in Britain, in Europe and the United States.
It came on a day of high drama in London as the divisive president’s motorcade passed Parliament Square, where the baby blimp is flying.
The entire stretch of road towards Number 10 was completely sealed off by dozens of police officers, including several on horseback.