A Labour frontbencher has been caught out plagiarising Barack Obama’s famous 2008 acceptance speech when she was re-elected as an MP last year.
Parts of Kate Osamor’s address after being re-elected are nearly identical to the speech the former US President made after winning the race for the White House.
But the shadow international development secretary swapped out Mr Obama’s references to America for Edmonton – her constituency in north London.
Ms Osamor today denied stealing the extracts and insisted it was meant as a nod to the Mr Obama who made history when he was elected the US’s first black president in 2008.
On being announced the winner in last June’s election, Ms Osamor took the microphone and proclaimed that it was a great day for Edmonton.
Kate Osamor (pictured right) used a chunk of Barack Obama’s speech to hail her own reelection to Edmonton in last year’s election
She said: ‘If there is anyone out there who doubts that Edmonton is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of hope is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
‘It’s the answer told by the lines of people stretched around polling stations, schools and churches.
‘By young people who queued, many for the first time in their lives because they believed that voting for Labour this time must be different, that their voices could be the difference.’
The section is virtually identical to Mr Obama’s speech in his hometown of Chicago after he was elected President for the first time.
He told the crowd: ‘If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
The incident echoes the time American First Lady Melania Trump appeared to copy a speech given by Michelle Obama while addressing the Republican convention in 2016 (pictured)
‘It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.’
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen told PoliticsHome: ‘They say plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, but Kate Osamor is no Barack Obama.’
A spokesman for Ms Osamor said: ‘Kate deliberately invoked a victory speech so famous that she thought it needed no introduction.’
The incident echoes the time American First Lady Melania Trump appeared to copy a speech given by Michelle Obama while addressing the Republican convention in 2016.
The Trump campaign admitted that the aspiring first lady’s talk ‘included fragments that reflected her own thinking’ but came from somewhere else.