Jeremy Corbyn compares far-right MEP candidates to the rise of the Nazis The Labour leader was speaking in Liverpool ahead of next week’s EU elections

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned an apparent far-right surge ahead of next week’s European elections, likening it to Nazi Germany.

In a speech at a campaign event in Bootle on Saturday, Mr Corbyn drew a comparison to 1930s Germany as he attacked the far-right for “simplistic answers which can only breed hatred and division.”

Resurgent far-right parties could win as many as 132 MEPs across Europe according to early projections, amounting to 19 per cent of the total seats in the European Parliament.

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‘Hatred and division’

The leader compared “propaganda” being put out ahead of the 23 May elections to the rise of the Nazi Party.

He said: “I read the propaganda being put out by the far-right in this European election, where they’re blaming Muslims for all the ills of our society.

“Change that language to the language used in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s… you begin to see where this leads to.” Jeremy Corbyn

“Change that language to the language used in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, where they tried to blame Jewish people for all the ills of society. You begin to see where this leads to.

“We have to come together today, not just to oppose the far right but also to analyse what’s happened and above all how we fix it and how we go forward.”

Mr Corbyn added: “If we are to live in a world of peace, live in a world that can survive, deal with the great challenges of the world, you only do it by coming together, you only do it by pooling our minds, our brains, our energy, our imagination and our resources.

“If instead we allow the far right in Europe to mount once again the spectre, the scourge, the hatred of anti-Semitism in Poland, in Austria, in Germany, in Hungary, if we allow them to mount the spectre of Islamophobia in France, in the Netherlands or in this country, then we are weakening.”

Election loses

Later in his speech Mr Corbyn referenced English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, who is running as an MEP candidate in North West England, leading to loud booing from attendees.

Also speaking at the rally, local Bootle Labour MP Peter Dowd said: “Bootle wants to send the message to these fascists and it’s quite simply ‘get lost’.

“Jeremy will be the next Labour prime minister and we are well on the way to that.”

The Labour and Conservative parties are both expected to lose seats at the election, with the Brexit Party set to make gains as well as the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats and Greens.

A 17 May YouGov poll placed Labour in third on 15 per cent, behind the Liberal Democrats on 16 per cent and the Brexit Party on 35 per cent.

The Greens were on 10 per cent, while the Conservatives trail on nine per cent.

Additional reporting by Press Association