US Senator Bernie Sanders has denied sending Jeremy Corbyn a message of support in his battle with Owen Smith for the Labour leadership.
Corbyn told supporters on Monday evening the former Democratic presidential candidate had been in touch to point out the parallels between the two men.
However a spokesman for Senator Sanders told The Huffington Post UK today: “The senator didn’t send a message and doesn’t intend to get involved in British politics.”
The spokesman added that Senator Sanders, who lost out to Hillary Clinton in the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee, “has a lot of respect for Mr. Corbyn and wishes him well”.
A spokesperson for the Corbyn campaign told HuffPost: “Jeremy was misinformed by an aide, who had wrongly been led to believe this was the case.”
And a campaign source said despite a message not having been sent, aides to Senator Sanders were due to come work on the Labour leader’s re-election campaign.
According to the Press Association, Corbyn told volunteers at a campaign phonebank in Walthamstow, east London, he rejected criticism that he is unelectable by likening himself to Senator Sanders.
“We had a message yesterday from Bernie Sanders, saying that they condemned him because he wasn’t electable,” he said.
“And he said the reason they condemned him was because he was electable. And he represented a threat to the establishment within the USA.”
Corbyn added: “So I think you can see the parallels that are going on there.”
There are often comparisons made between the two left-wing politicians - including their ability to draw large crowds.
However unlike Corbyn, Senator Sanders failed to capture the leadership of his party.
Corbyn will face Smith in a live head-to-head leadership debate tomorrow evening.
Over the last 24-hours the Labour leader has been engulfed in a row over whether there were any spare seats on a train, while Smith has had to apologise for appearing to describe the current Labour leader as a “lunatic”.
