By Jon Craig, chief political correspondent
Jeremy Corbyn is accusing Theresa May and the Conservatives of being too weak to stand up to Donald Trump on steel tariffs.
The Labour leader says the prime minister is trying to appease the US president in a bid to win a post-Brexit trade deal.
In one of two speeches at trade union conferences in Brighton, he will attack the government's "timid response" to the president's plan to slap a 25% tariff on EU steel and 10% on aluminium.
His attack comes less than 24 hours after the prime minister told Mr Trump in a 30-minute phone call that his tariff proposals were "unjustified and deeply disappointing".
Addressing the conference of the GMB, traditionally a moderate union but now broadly loyal to Mr Corbyn, he will say: "US President Donald Trump's latest unilateral steel tariffs are wrong.
"The Trump tariffs risk hurting workers in the United States and around the world by sparking tit-for-tat retaliation."
He will go on to say: "Empowering people and standing up for the many, not the few is what the Labour movement is all about. But the Tory government's timid response shamefully fails to stand up to Trump.
"We've now seen it time and time again.
"Theresa May and her government were too weak to stand up to Trump over the Muslim ban, or his promotion of the disgusting Britain First, or his plunging the future of the planet into ever greater danger by pulling out of the Paris climate change accord, or his punitive tariffs on Bombardier, or his ripping up of the Iran nuclear deal, or his reckless threat to peace by recognising Jerusalem, including occupied Palestinian territory, as Israel's capital.
"The Tories are too weak to stand up to the powerful, and too in hock to them even if they wanted to.
"Theresa May is appeasing Donald Trump in the hope of getting a race-to-the-bottom trade deal with the US after we leave the European Union.
"The Trump trade tariffs show that's a Tory pipe dream."
In his speech, Mr Corbyn will also underline Labour's election manifesto pledge to renationalise the water industry, in which the GMB is the dominant trade union.
"The privatisation of water has been a failed and unpopular experiment," he will say.
"It's been bad for workers in the industry and bad for bill payers. The only people it hasn't been bad for is rich shareholders.
"Public ownership will deliver a better deal for workers in the industry, which is why we are fully signed up to support GMB's six pledges for water, as well as better value for individuals and families."
And after a row over Labour MPs advertising for unpaid interns, Mr Corbyn will give a pledge that the Labour Party will pay its staff at least £10 an hour in future.
"We need bold action to quickly get more money in people's pockets at the end of the month," he will say. "That is why in our last manifesto Labour promised to ban zero hours contracts and introduce a real living wage of at least £10 an hour by 2020.
"And that is why today I am announcing today that the Labour Party, under our new General Secretary Jennie Formby, is committing to pay all of our staff, at any level of our organisation, no less than £10 an hour."
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After his speech to the GMB, Mr Corbyn will then address the conference of the left-wing Fire Brigades Union, in a speech in which he is expected to attack the Government's handling of the Grenfell tragedy.
This speech follows dramatic disclosures at the Grenfell fire inquiry, which heard distressing reports of failings by the authorities over the safety of the block and by fire chiefs on the night of the fire.
Original ArticlePolitics
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