Atlantic Council Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for United Press International on the similarities between Britain’s Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump:
Donald Trump is rapidly becoming the Republican Party’s equivalent of Britain’s Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. The question is whether Trump’s destructive personality and rhetoric will do to the GOP what Corbyn has done to disintegrate Labor, in essence making Great Britain a one party system dominated by the Conservative Party. Of course profound differences exist. The Republicans control one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, at least until January 2017.
David Cameron‘s surprising electoral victory earlier this year gave his party a majority in the House of Commons (330 seats) routing both Labor (232 seats) and the Liberal Democrats (8 seats) while the Scottish National Party (54 seats) advanced. But what hurt Corbyn more and split Labor was last week’s vote authorizing Britain to mount strikes against Syria following the Paris attacks. Corbyn voted no. Shadow Foreign Minister Hilary Benn gave a bravura speech arguing for approval, convincing 66 Labor MP’s to join Cameron’s majority. A similar resolution had been voted down in 2013.