Priti Patel has compared Nigel Farage to Jeremy Corbyn after the Reform UK leader said Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been “rude” to Donald Trump.
Speaking during a phone-in on LBC radio, Farage said: “I think President Zelenskyy was very unwise to tell the Americans what would happen to them if they didn’t back him I think it was unwise. Sure, Vance and Trump bit back. But I think in diplomatic terms Zelenskyy played it very badly.”
In response, Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, compared Nigel Farage to Jeremy Corbyn, saying that, like the former Labour leader, he had a “history [of] equivocating over Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine”.
Patel said: “Nigel Farage is completely wrong. President Zelenskyy is a hero, who has stood up to Putin’s aggression, and led his country’s defence against their barbaric and illegal invasion over the last three years – and it is troubling to not hear the leader of Reform say that.
“For Nigel Farage to sit there pointing the finger at Zelenskyy is both morally wrong and diplomatically counterproductive. At this uncertain and dangerous time, one would hope that MPs of all stripes would be putting our national interest first, rather than playing politics.”
Corbyn
It just so happens that Jeremy Corbyn has just published an article in Tribune magazine, which perhaps Patel should have read first.
In the article he writes: “This month was the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Reflecting on the deadly, daily grind of First World War-style trench warfare, I asked a simple question in Parliament: ‘Could we just, for one moment, take a moment to reflect on the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost?’ From the beginning, I opposed Russia’s invasion and called for an end to the conflict as soon as possible to save human life. Three years on, and hundreds of thousands of grieving mothers later, I renew this call. There is no glory to war – there is only death and destruction. When leaders neglect to use the language of peace, they should remember that it’s those who are sent to die on the battlefield who end up paying the price.”
Corbyn also slammed Starmer writing: “If the Prime Minister wants to take pride in militaristic jingoism, then he must accept the shame of a more unstable and unequal world it helps create. Perhaps he should take a moment to pause, reflect and ask himself what happened the last time a Labour Prime Minister appointed himself the messiah of the free world.”
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