Corbyn gives credit to Sanders for election success

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has given credit to US Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for his election success in the last month British election.  

In an interview with Naomi Klein for The Intercept, published Thursday, Corbyn said Sanders called him the day after the June 8 British election to congratulate him, and Corbyn accredited him many for "campaign ideas."

"Bernie called me the day after our election here. I was half asleep watching something on television," Corbyn said. "And Bernie comes on to say, well done on the campaign, and I was interested in your campaigning ideas. Where did you get them from? And I said, well, you, actually."

May had called for a snap election in hopes of getting an increased majority that could have strengthened her position before going into two years of intense negotiations with the European Union about Britain’s departure from the bloc.

But her Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority in the vote. Corbyn's Labour, meanwhile, picked up dozens of seats.

In the run-up to the June 8 election, Sanders voiced support for Corbyn, saying he was impressed by the Labour leader and his efforts to reach out to the grassroots and transform the Labour Party.

“What has impressed … is he has taken on the establishment of the Labour party, he has gone to the grassroots and he has tried to transform that party,” said Sanders.

Read More:

• 'Trump won because Democrats rigged system'
• Sanders could have defeated Trump: Poll

In his interview on Thursday, Corbyn said he would ask supporters of Sanders' presidential bid who are feeling frustrated with the administration of US President Donald Trump not to be discouraged, because ultimately, "human beings want to do things together."

Corbyn said his campaign was initially "in a difficult political position" in the election, but then, “we put forward a manifesto that was collective in its approach, was specific in what it would do, in the sense of ending university tuition fees, in the sense of raising minimum income, and we gained the biggest increase in vote for our party since the Second World War.” 

"And we gained the support and participation of a very large number of people," he said. "We didn’t win the election. I wish we had. But in that campaign, we changed the debate in exactly the same way Senator Bernie Sanders’ intervention into Democratic nomination did mobilize a very large number of people."

According to WikiLeaks, Trump won the November 8 US presidential election because Democrats rigged the system to have Hillary Clinton beat Sanders. 

Sanders, who sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, could have won the election but the Democratic National Committee (DNC) stopped him from doing so by pushing him out from the primary race, the whistleblowing agency suggested in a statement published on its website following the November 8 US election. 

WikiLeaks claimed that the Democratic Party establishment conspired to ensure Clinton win the party’s presidential nomination. In doing so it chose a weaker candidate who lost the election against Trump, the agency suggested.

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