Jeremy Corbyn will jet off on four-day fact-finding trip to Ghana while he is supposed to be getting MPs behind his mission to become Prime Minister
- The Labour leader will visit the west African country to meet with leaders
- It comes at a time he is trying to rally support for his bid for Number 10
- Corbyn appealed for cross-party support to become caretaker prime minister
Jeremy Corbyn is to go on a fact-finding jaunt to Ghana next week instead of building cross-party support for his bid to become Prime Minister.
The Labour leader will spent four days in the west African country where he is set to meet President Nana Akufo-Addo.
It comes at the same time as Corbyn is trying to win backing to become a caretaker Prime Minister to block a no deal Brexit.
Jeremy Corbyn is to go on a fact-finding jaunt to Ghana next week instead of building cross-party support for his bid to become Prime Minister
Corbyn will meet with resident Nana Akufo-Addo during his trip who he also spoke with earlier this year
He plans to win a confidence vote in the Commons and become the interim leader but this can only happen with cross-party support.
But instead of consolidating this, Corbyn will spend most of the week in meetings with Ghana’s socialist leaders and member of their National Democratic Congress, according to The Sun.
A Labour MP said: ‘It would help matters if the party leader wasn’t going abroad at such a time but what would help most is if he wasn’t Labour leader.’
‘People in his own party don’t trust him so what chance is there of people in other parties backing him.’
The trip to Ghana is being funded by the Labour party and will see Corbyn meet with President Nana Akufo-Addo among other senior government members.
In April last year, Jeremy Corbyn met with the Ghanaian president where they discussed trade after Brexit
Instead of rallying support for his Number 10 bid, Corbyn will be in West Africa for four days
The Ghanaian president, who came into power in 2016, met with Corbyn last year where they discussed ‘the rights of Commonwealth citizens in the UK, trade after Brexit, reform of the Commonwealth and UN, the role of the African Union and US forces in Africa.’
During his inauguration speech, he was widely criticised for lifting parts of famous speeches by US presidents including John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and George Bush.
He led a campaign focused on anti-corruption but critics say he has failed to clamp down on it.
Last week, Corbyn wrote to the party leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and backbench Tory MPs asking for cooperation and their backing in a bid to halt Boris Johnson’s no deal Brexit plans.
But his proposal has been knocked back by the Liberal Democrats and Remainer Tories who he would need onside to form an emergency government
Conservative former minister Sir Oliver Letwin said he would not be able to support a bid to put Mr Corbyn in Number 10, and that he did not think it was likely that a majority could be formed for the idea.
And Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve said that while he would be willing to bring down Mr Johnson’s administration, he did not think the Labour leader was the right person to lead a caretaker government.