The shadow foreign secretary has compared the wave of popular support for Donald Trump’s anti-establishment message to the similarly unexpected rise of Jeremy Corbyn, energised for similar reasons.

Emily Thornberry said although the values of the Labour leader and the Republican president-elect were very different, both had a message about the political system that resonated.



But Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, warned that legitimate concerns about economic alienation must never be allowed to give a veneer of respect to racism, misogyny and intolerance.

Thornberry told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it’s right there are hundreds and thousands energised by Jeremy Corbyn being the leader of the Labour party so there are some similarities.” She added that it was clear their principles did not align.

What do Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump have in common? | David Shariatmadari Read more

Trump’s message on job creation and industry also resonated, Thornberry said. “To give him his credit, I never thought I’d say this, but Donald Trump was talking about the importance of investing in jobs and infrastructure and in the economies across the country, not just the main cities, and that’s right.”

Corbyn has called Trump’s victory in the US an “unmistakable rejection of a political establishment and an economic system that simply isn’t working for most people”, while expressing unease at the divisive rhetoric of Trump’s campaign.

Thornberry said Corbyn’s statement should not be taken as any form of endorsement of Trump’s message. “I don’t think it would be right to say Jeremy welcomes it but I think he recognises what is happening,” she said.

“There are too many people, too many regions, who feel that politics at the moment doesn’t represent their interests. He’s right to say so. The system has to be shaken up.”

Thornberry said Labour had popular messages that could be delivered more deftly. “We are an alternative, we will be a good alternative and we have to find a way to express that clearly.

“Politics in Britain is going very fast indeed. I don’t bet but I think the wheel will turn.”

Addressing the Holyrood chamber at first minister’s question’s, Sturgeon went further than her initial statement on Trump’s shock victory on Wednesday – in which she urged the president-elect to prove that he could act for all US citizens regardless of race or background – declaring: “I’m not prepared to be a politician that maintains a diplomatic silence in the face of racism, misogyny or hatred of any kind.”

Describing some of the views expressed by Trump during his campaign as “deeply abhorrent”, she said there was more of an obligation than ever “for people of progressive opinion the world over to stand up and be counted”.

She added: “There is no doubt whatsoever that many people feel economically alienated, but we must never allow those legitimate concerns to give a veneer of respectability to racism, misogyny and intolerance.”

Responding to a series of questions from the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, who herself travelled to the United States last week to campaign for Hillary Clinton, she said that the Democratic candidate’s defeat “tells us we are not as far down road to gender equality as we hoped we were”.

Dugdale warned that Trump’s behaviour towards women sent “a dangerous signal across the world”.

But Sturgeon also insisted that, while she regretted the result, she respected the decision of the American people and wanted to engage “positively and constructively” with the next US administration.

May congratulates Trump on victory but Corbyn voices fears Read more

Sturgeon stripped Trump of his honorary role as a Scottish business ambassador last year, after his attack on Mexicans and Muslims, describing his rhetoric as “obnoxious and offensive”.



The former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith wrote in a piece for ConservativeHome on Thursday that Trump’s US presidency could be a golden opportunity for British influence across the Atlantic because of the parallels with the popular movement to leave the EU.

Duncan Smith said there could be no more complacency about the challenge to the political establishment. “Whatever our own personal feelings about the winner, having gone through a similar shakeup here in the UK we are now uniquely placed to help shape the future,” he wrote.

The Tory MP had previously hinted at support for the Republican, telling LBC radio he “wouldn’t be voting for Clinton, that’s for sure” and quoting the US House of Representatives speaker, Paul Ryan, as saying Trump was a “very decent man who said he’d be better”.

After it emerged during the campaign that Trump had spoken about molesting women being easier because of his fame, Duncan Smith’s office said those comments should not be taken as an endorsement of Trump.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Iain Duncan Smith said Theresa May was well placed to influence Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Photograph: James Gourley/Rex/Shutterstock

In his piece on Thursday, Duncan Smith said Britain could “indulge ourselves in an orgy of complaint” about the US vote or choose to engage constructively. “After all, Trump has already indicated that he regards the UK as a close ally and friend of the United States, and that when ready the UK would be his first choice for initiating a new trade deal.”

Theresa May was well placed to influence Trump’s foreign policy, Duncan Smith said. Trump has previously suggested he would erect more trade barriers to protect US industry and consider withdrawing or minimising America’s Nato commitments.

“[May] has also made it clear that as we leave the EU we want to ensure we control migration and ensure the economy works for those in the bottom half of the income scale,” Duncan Smith said. “These were concerns held by many in the USA as well.

“We are, however, committed to do that through free trade and as we do so we can help the USA shape its own programme as the new American administration seeks to deliver to the same group of people.”

Downing Street confirmed that May was preparing for a phone call with Trump. Though the prime minister was at pains not to express any preference during the race for the White House, she described the president-elect’s call to ban Muslims from entering the US as “divisive, unhelpful and wrong” when she was home secretary.