Gerry Adams: I would like to see ‘outstanding’ Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister

Gerry Adams has said he hopes Jeremy Corbyn will become the next Prime Minister, as he spoke of his “outstanding” political abilities.



The outgoing Sinn Féin president also praised the Labour leader and his allies for meeting with Irish republicans during the Troubles when most UK politicians would not.

“Well, I would like to see Jeremy in that position for the benefit of people in Britain, leaving Ireland out of it.” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

“I think Jeremy is an outstanding politician, I hope my endorsement of him isn’t used against him in the time ahead, but yes, he and Ken Livingstone and others kept faith and they were the people who said, when others said no, talk.

“They were the people who were open to conversation about how to deal with conflict and how to get a conflict resolution process, but let’s not pre-empt the next general election."

The former MP, who now sits in the Republic of Ireland’s parliament, also hit out at the UK government over its approach to Brexit, which he said would be “disastrous” for Ireland.

“The British government are not at all clear about what their future relationship with the European Union is going to be,” he added.

“They’re arguing that they’re going to leave the customs union and single market and that will end up a complete disaster for people here on the island of Ireland."

Mr Adams also named Tony Blair as the most significant British player in the Northern Ireland peace process, but added that he later warned the former Prime Minister against invading Iraq.

He said: “We actually, myself and Martin [McGuinness] actually warned him about not getting involved in Iraq. We said look at the Irish experience, don’t go in there.”