Corbyn and Obama meet to discuss global inequality

Jeremy Corbyn has met with Barack Obama to discuss international progressive issues during the US President’s trip to Britain.

The last week has seen uncertainty about whether there would be chance for the two to meet, but it was confirmed late on Friday night that a meeting would take place and, while details were kept secret until afterwards, the pair had a sit-down yesterday.

Corbyn has long been a critic of, in particular, the USA’s foreign policy – prompting speculation that the Labour leader would use the opportunity to raise his concerns about the country’s role in military interventions. In November, Corbyn used a speech to argue that Britain should develop a “new kind of foreign policy” that makes the UK “more independent” from the rest of the world, which raised questions of how he views the ‘special relationship’ with America.

Instead, however, the pair discussed topics that would have lessened the chance for disagreement, such as the detrimental effects of globalisation and the need to tackle inequality on an international scale.

A Labour spokesperson said of the discussion:

“The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn met the US President Barack Obama today at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. They discussed the power of global corporations, the impact of globalisation on working people and the need to take action to reduce inequality across the world. They agreed on the case for Britain to remain a member of the European Union, and that there would be further contact between their teams to discuss measures to deal with international tax avoidance and evasion.”

While sources in the leadership office rubbished reports last week that Corbyn was declining to take the opportunity for a talk with Obama, their efforts to make the meeting happen have appeared markedly different to those of Ed Miliband’s team two years ago. When the then-Labour leader was visiting Washington DC in 2014, his office went to great lengths to ensure that a chat between Miliband and Obama could take place.

Corbyn’s office has, successfully, engineered a similar encounter, but has neither pushed as hard for it to happen nor trumpeted it as much afterwards – it’s unclear whether there was even a photograph taken. This seems a conscious move on the part of the Labour leader’s team, who may be unlikely to see a photo-op with a US president as particularly important to Corbyn’s image.