U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn | Jack Taylor/Getty Images Corbyn’s support for Venezuela’s Maduro ‘disgusting,’ says Mike Pompeo ‘No leader in a country with Western democratic values ought to stand behind’ the socialist regime says US secretary of state.

LONDON — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched a scathing attack on U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn Wednesday — claiming any support for the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is “disgusting.”

In an unusually direct attack on a serving British party leader, Pompeo said “no leader in a country with Western democratic values ought to stand behind” the Maduro regime.

Pompeo’s remarks came at the end of a joint press conference with the U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in London this afternoon in response to a question about Corbyn’s “endorsement” of Maduro.

Corbyn has criticised “outside interference” in Venezuela by the U.S. and other Western powers, who have recognised the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the interim president of the country.

Pompeo's response was unequivocal. “It is disgusting to see leaders, in not only the United Kingdom, but the United States as well, who continue to support the murderous dictator Maduro,” he said. “It is not in either of our country’s best interests for those leaders to continue to advocate on their behalf.”

Pompeo said the Venezuelan people had spoken “through their constitutional mechanism” to replace Maduro as leader. “They have put Juan Guaidó as their interim president. He is the duly elected leader there. Maduro is on borrowed time.”

Further ramping up his attack, Pompeo added: “To see American leaders, or leaders from this country, to continue to provide support and comfort to a regime that has created so much devastation, so much destruction … no leader in a country with Western democratic values ought to stand behind them.”

Seizing his opportunity to attack the Labour opposition, Hunt said Maduro had overseen a dramatic collapse in the country’s economy. “This is a country where 3 million people have fled the country, GDP has gone down by 40 percent in the last four years, people can’t access basic medicine and people are rifling through rubbish bags to get food,” he said. “John McDonnell [the U.K. shadow chancellor] describes this as socialism in action and people need to draw their own conclusions about what his plans might be for the U.K.”