Emily Thornberry Joins Jeremy Corbyn By Boycotting Trump’s State Banquet
14 May 2019, 20:59 | Updated: 14 May 2019, 21:06
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry revealed on LBC that she told Buckingham Palace she does not want to be invited to Donald Trump’s state banquet next month.
The Labour frontbencher said she did not want to go to the lavish event in June, branding the US President an “abomination”.
“I got in touch with the Palace and said I didn’t want to be invited,” she told Iain Dale during an LBC phone-in on Tuesday night.
“I think it was wrong of Theresa May to advise Her Majesty to invite him over for a State Visit.
“Most presidents are given a couple of years to be settled in before they’re invited over - you need to get the measure of the person first.”
Ms Thornberry continued: “He is doing his utmost, I think, to undermine world order, I think his attitudes towards women and ethnic minorities are appalling.
“I have no problem in saying so, I don’t think I should probably be saying all of that at a state banquet but I will say it to him if I’m given the opportunity of seeing him privately.”
The banquet is due to take place on the first night of the state visit, which runs between the 3rd to 5th June.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has already said he won’t attend the event.
He says it’s wrong to “roll out the red carpet” for Mr Trump, accusing him of using a “racist and misogynist rhetoric”.
