Jo Cox’s widowed husband savages Labour leader ‘defending a dictator’
JEREMY CORBYN was condemned by the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox for ‘defending a dictator’ by failing to act over Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Brendan Cox spoke out after the Labour leader renewed his attacks on ‘outside interference’ in the crisis-hit South American country and berated Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for calling for more sanctions. Mr Corbyn, a long-time ally of the Venezuelan regime, has refused to shift his stance despite mounting calls for socialist leader Maduro to stand down and allow fresh elections to take place.
In a defiant Tweet yesterday, Mr Corbyn insisted ‘the future of Venezuela is a matter for Venezuelans’ and called for ‘dialogue and a negotiated settlement to overcome the crisis’.
But Mr Cox, ex-chief strategist for Save The Children, issued a withering riposte which tore into Maduro and condemned the Labour leader’s position.
Mr Cox, whose wife Jo was murdered by a Right-wing extremist in 2016, tweeted: ‘The future of Venezuela has been taken out of the hands of Venezuelans by an increasingly corrupt and totalitarian state.
‘By all means call for dialogue but if you don’t strongly condemn the subjugation of democracy it sounds like you are defending a dictator.’
Senior Labour colleagues of Mr Corbyn have signalled their backing for his stance, criticising the US in particular for trying to interfere in Venezuela’s affairs.