The shadow foreign secretary has compared Jeremy Corbyn to newly elected US president Donald Trump.
Emily Thornberry linked Trump’s ability to moblilise thousands of people with his anti-establishment message to how Corbyn “energised” Labour.
Some media suggested the comparison was aimed at showing the Labour leader was also capable of pulling off a surprise election victory, something Corbyn fans pointed out on Wednesday.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Thornberry said: “I think it’s right there are hundreds and thousands energised by Jeremy Corbyn being the leader of the Labour party so there are some similarities.”
Thornberry went on to say that Trump’s message on job creation and industry also resonated.
“To give him his credit, I never thought I’d say this, but Donald Trump was talking about the importance of investing in jobs and infrastructure and in the economies across the country, not just the main cities, and that’s right.”
Corbyn called Trump’s victory on Tuesday a result of public anger at the “failed economic consensus” pursued by establishment politicians.
He said: “Trump’s election is an unmistakable rejection of a political establishment and an economic system that simply isn’t working for most people. It is one that has delivered escalating inequality and stagnating or falling living standards for the majority, both in the US and Britain.
“This is a rejection of a failed economic consensus and a governing elite that has been seen not to have listened. And the public anger that has propelled Donald Trump to office has been reflected in political upheavals across the world.”
Corbyn however, was clear to also point out that some of Trump’s “answers to the big questions facing America, and the divisive rhetoric around them, are clearly wrong”.
And this was something Thornberry was also quick to point out to the BBC, saying: “I don’t think it would be right to say Jeremy welcomes it but I think he recognises what is happening.
“There are too many people, too many regions, who feel that politics at the moment doesn’t represent their interests. He’s right to say so. The system has to be shaken up.”
Thornberry added that Labour had popular messages, but needed to deliver them better: “We are an alternative, we will be a good alternative and we have to find a way to express that clearly.
“Politics in Britain is going very fast indeed. I don’t bet but I think the wheel will turn.”
MP Richard Burgon added on Twitter that in the past Labour had learnt lessons from Democrat victories in the US, but this time needed to “learn lessons from this defeat”.
With polls in the UK showing Corbyn trailing fair behind Theresa May’s Conservative Party - some fans of the Labour leader took heart from Trump’s unlikely win over Hillary Clinton.
“The next person who tells me ‘Corbyn will never win, because the polls say’ will get shown my Trump card,” on supporter wrote.
In September Ed Balls compared Corbyn to Trump saying that like the Republican, he communicates in a “protesting kind of way”.