Corbyn: Donald Trump and the “billionaire-backed” Tories have no interest in letting voters take back control

Jeremy Corbyn will today tell British voters to “take back control” from vested Tory interests in the aftermath of the surprise election of Donald Trump as US president.

The Labour leader seeks to tie Theresa May to the maverick American businessman when he says “neither billionaire Donald Trump nor the billionaire-backed Tories” have any interest in curbing the excesses of globalisation and the free market.

Corbyn, whose appeal on the left has been compared to the populism of Trump despite their vast political differences, today attacks the president-elect for seeking to blame groups such as migrants at the end of a campaign for the White House that many viewed as sexist and racist.

“Donald Trump tapped into real problems: stagnating or falling wages, underfunded public services, insecure work and housing, years of being left behind and neglected, frustration that your children’s prospects look bleaker, and anger at a political elite that doesn’t listen,” Corbyn will say.

“But instead of offering real solutions or the resources to make them work, he offered only someone to blame – everyone, that is, apart from those who are actually responsible for a broken economy and a failed political system.

“The Tories do the same. They have opened the door to UKIP and fanned the flames of fear. Nigel Farage blames immigrants, yet offers not a single proposal to put a penny more into the NHS. He actually wants to privatise our NHS, a service that now relies on hard-working migrants to keep going.

“There is a common thread of experience for tens of millions of people in the US and UK. In both countries, people feel left behind: marginalised and disrespected by an economic system that makes them work harder for less, while hoovering up ever greater rewards for a small elite.”

Corbyn’s intervention, in a speech at Labour south east regional conference in Ashford, Kent, comes after a tumultuous week in which many of the left have reacted with shock or horror at the triumph of Trump over Hillary Clinton.

The Labour leader’s allies have said both Corbyn and Trump can articulate the anger of voters who feel disenfranchised despite their differing solutions. Emily Thornberry, shadow foreign secretary, admitted to the BBC there are some “similarities” between the veteran socialist and the billionaire property entrepreneur because there are “too many people who feel the political system doesn’t work on behalf of everyone”.

Corbyn will today lambast Trump and try to bracket him with May, who has been criticised for failing to spell out any European policy beyond “Brexit means Brexit”.

“We have no idea how Donald Trump proposes to ‘make America great again’, and Theresa May’s Tories offer slogans, but no solutions, for most people in Britain,” Corbyn will say.

“We won’t tackle the damage done by elite globalisation just by leaving the EU. We won’t ‘take back control’ unless we take on the corporate vested interests that control our energy, our transport and have infiltrated our public services.

“One thing is for sure: neither billionaire Donald Trump nor the billionaire-backed Tories have any interest in giving people back control or reining in the predatory excesses of a globalised free-for-all.”