Dec 12, 2019 - World

AOC urges U.K. voters to back Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party

Shane Savitsky

Photos: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images; Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) urged U.K. voters to head to the polls to vote for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party in Thursday's general election.

"The hoarding of wealth by the few is coming at the cost of peoples’ lives. The only way we change is with a massive surge of *new* voters at the polls. U.K., Vote!"

The big picture: Ocasio-Cortez, who said a Labour-created video "might as well have been produced about the United States," is the latest big-name U.S. politician to have a stake in the U.K.'s trip to the polls — which features Brexit at its center.

Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most popular progressive politicians in the U.S., had a 45-minute phone conversation with Corbyn soon after she took office earlier this year, per CNN. The pair of democratic socialists discussed how to "build a movement across borders."

The other side: President Trump is backing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, as completing Brexit would clear the way for the bilateral U.S.-U.K. trade relationship that Trump favors over negotiating with the European Union.

But even Johnson, one of the few European leaders with whom he has genuinely warm relations, was careful not to get too close to Trump during the NATO summit in London earlier this month.

The big picture: A key election forecast earlier this week showed the Conservatives' lead shrinking ahead of today's election, though it still forecasted a solid victory for Johnson's party.

Labour has faced a number of scandals, including an ongoing anti-Semitism controversy in the party that caused the U.K.'s chief rabbi to label Corbyn unfit to be prime minister.

Go deeper: Boris Johnson accused of hiding in refrigerator to avoid TV interview

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AOC urges U.K. voters to back Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party

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