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Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest ally said late president Hugo Chavez’s regime would have worked if he had “learnt lessons from the UK”, which “squandered oil resources as well”, and invested long-term.

He told a panel, assembled to discuss ‘Will free markets make a comeback?’: “It’s not that the issue is socialism versus capitalism.

"In terms of what happened in Venezuela, they took a wrong turn."

He said Chavez’s policies had helped to “tackle inequality” and investment in education but he should have “mobilised the oil resources” to invest in the future.