Theresa May was asked “What did you do to help the release of Nelson Mandela?” ahead of her visit to Robben Island yesterday.
The prime minister came under scrutiny over her stance on apartheid as she prepared to visit a prison that held captive political campaigners during a period of institutionalised racial segregation in South Africa.
Channel 4’s Michael Crick asked whether May protested apartheid or whether she towed the party line at the time which viewed Nelson Mandela as a terrorist.
Her Labour counterpart Jeremy Corbyn was a staunch opponent of the South African regime at the time and a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the ANC.
He was even arrested for protesting outside the South African embassy in 1984.
The Prime Minister is on the first leg of a three-country mission to Africa, saying she wants the UK to overtake the US to become the G7’s biggest investor in the continent by 2022.
Watch the clip in full below:
If only the BBC could interview May like this. pic.twitter.com/52FQOaET3X
— John Prescott (@johnprescott) August 28, 2018