Pictures emerge of an unlikely friendship between Jeremy Corbyn and Margaret Thatcher
The Labour leadership candidate has been pictured shaking hands and sharing a joke with his one time nemesis Margaret Thatcher.
However, not everything it as it seems – Corbyn is in fact greeting Edinburgh Fringe Festival act Margaret Thatcher, Queen of Soho – who last year sent PinkNews readers a very special festive message.
The pair met at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, as Mr Corbyn campaigned in Scotland earlier today (August 14).
The Labour leadership candidate is holding rallies across Scotland, where he has spoken of his opposition to the renewal of Trident and his willingness to work with Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP in fighting the Welfare Reforms Bill.
The reunion of the controversial pair comes after a video recently emerged of one of their last public encounters – as an angry Mr Corbyn blasted Mrs Thatcher during a 1990 edition of Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Labour leadership frontrunner attacked Mrs Thatcher for only providing one sixth of the funding needed to tackle homelessness on the streets of London.
At the time around 25,000 families were living in bed and breakfasts in the capital – with 2,000 more sleeping rough.
In a fiery exchange, a fresh faced Corbyn said: “Will the Prime Minister accept that ten years ago in 1979 there were 2750 households in temporary accommodation in London? The current figure is over 25,000 and a further 2,000 people are sleeping on the streets.
“Does she agree that people sleeping on the streets of our capital city, being charged exorbitant rents and children being brought up in bed and breakfast hotels is a disgrace to a civilised country?”
Mrs Thatcher insisted she had approved “very considerable extra expenditure to relieve homelessness” in London and blamed the backlog of empty council house properties that were taking too long to fill.
Watch the video below.
In a recent exclusive interview with PinkNews, Mr Corbyn recently spoke about his long history of supporting equality – and how he would be happy to work with the Conservatives on progressing LGBT issues.
He also said that he would put LGBT and human rights in front of relationships with overseas nations.
Asked if he would risk harming diplomatic ties with countries for the sake of LGBT rights, he said: “Yes, you have to. There are various stages by which you can do it.
“For example, countries that have trade agreements with the EU – all EU trade agreements have a human rights clause.
“Many of those countries have knowingly signed trade agreements,” he added.
“It is a question of enforcing those human rights clauses, which can, of course, lead to economic and diplomatic consequences.”
