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Jeremy Corbyn on The Last Leg: enthusiastic about staying in the EU but won't share a platform with Cameron

The Labour leader says he has a different vision for Europe with a focus on workers' rights and humanitarism

Caroline Mortimer
Friday 10 June 2016 22:28 BST
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Corbyn describes the Eu he wants to see

Jeremy Corbyn has said he is about "seven and seven and half out of ten" enthusiastic about staying in the European Union.

He said he will not share at platform with David Cameron because he is "making a completely different argument".

Appearing on the Channel 4 comedy show The Last Leg, he said "[Mr Cameron] wants a Europe for the free market, he wants a Europe dominated by global corporations. I suspect he wants to sign the Transatlantic Investment Partnership.

Corbyn on whether he shook Blair's hand or not

"I want to see a Europe that is about social cohesion, that is about better human rights, that is about workers' rights, that is also about taking a European approach to helping victims of wars who are going through the most appalling situation on the borders of Europe at the moment. There has to be a humanitarian response.

"Ours is a Labour agenda for the EU we want to see", he explained.

The Labour leader said he knew the Prime Minister's views were very different because "he still refuses to sign my questions about the signing of a thing called the Worker's Directive which is about stopping the exploitation of workers which migrant within a company from one jurisdiction to another".

When asked why he was willing to share a platform with Hezbollah and Hamas but not Mr Cameron he said he had met with the groups to "engage in a serious discussion" about solving the crisis in the Middle East.

He said it "didn't mean he agreed with them" but they "had to talk to them".

He was also asked about his opinion on Tony Blair "on a scale of one to ten from Pol Pot to Mother Teresa".

In response, he said he was waiting for the findings of the Chilcot report, due to be published next month, but believed there was an agreement between the British and US governments to go to Iraq.

He also reiterated his opposition to the renewal of Trident.

He said he believed the country should "honour its commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty" and he sincerely did not believe that the country was safer for saying it was prepared to use weapons of devastation.

In his lighter moments on the show, he made a grand entrance at the start of the show in a tuxedo, bow tie and fur coat in a nod to Mr Cameron's "buy a proper suit and do up your tie" jibe at Prime Minister's Questions in February.

He was quizzed on his hobbies which include collecting pictures of drain covers - a hobby he said was inspired by his mother - and memorising train timetables.

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