On Tuesday President Donald Trump revealed to a packed press conference at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office that the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn asked to meet with him.
Trump told the joint press conference with Theresa May that Corbyn is a “negative force.”
A Labour spokesperson said in a statement, “Jeremy Corbyn proposed a meeting with Donald Trump during the president’s visit.
“Jeremy is ready to engage with the president on a range of issues, including the climate emergency, threats to peace and the refugee crisis.”
At the same time Corbyn was addressing thousands of protesters in a speech and accused Trump of spreading “hatred” and “racism,” it is unclear if this was said because his invitation was refused.
Corbyn said he was very disappointed that Saidq Khan, the London mayor had “been attacked in the way that he has” referring to tweets sent by Trump on Monday before he landed at Stanstead Airport.
Corbyn said, “I am not, absolutely not, refusing to meet anybody. I want to be able to have that dialogue to bring about the better and more peaceful world that we all want to live in.
“But I’m very disappointed, particularly today, on the wonderful festival of Eid, that our Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has been attacked as he has.
“I am proud that our city has a Muslim mayor, that we can chase down Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, any form of racism within our society because racism divides.”
He added: “When you’ve created that sense of hate, when you’ve destroyed people’s self esteem by those forms of racism, do you know what? You haven’t built a house, you haven’t built a school, you haven’t trained a nurse, you haven’t defended our natural world.
“All you’ve done is created a greater sense of hate and hatred that goes with it.”
“I want to work with every government to bring about a peaceful world where we don’t solve our problems by going to war. That is the intelligent message of peace I believe we’re giving here today.
“Never forget that protest and activism eventually leads to change. I want to live in a world that thrives, that survives.
“Together we can make a big difference and change the world. This demonstration shows just how determined all of us are to achieve a better world.”
Shadow home secretary and Labour MP, Diane Abbott took to the stage to address the demonstrators she said, “This is not a demonstration against America, this is not a demonstration against the American people, this is against Trumpism and what Trumpism stands for.
“We have heard how abusive Trump was before he even got off the plane, how abusive he was to our mayor.
“Well I’m here to say that I’m proud that London has a Muslim mayor and I’m here to say that one of the things we are standing up against is the anti-Muslim narrative of Trumpism.”
However, Trump told the joint press conference that the protests are “fake news.”
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