Labour manifesto: Corbyn vows to take on ‘wealthy and powerful’ and save NHS from privatisation, as election pledges unveiled
Labour leader reveals plans to solve Brexit crisis and tackle climate emergency
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Jeremy Corbyn has unveiled Labour’s general election manifesto, branding it “the most radical and ambitious plan to transform our country in decades”.
However, the document watered down existing Labour policies in a range of areas, including abolishing private schools, extending freedom of movement and making the UK carbon neutral by 2030.
In a defiant message to critics of his left-wing agenda, Mr Corbyn said that “ferocious” attacks on him were a sign that the powerful elite are scared of his determination to change a system “rigged in their favour”.
And quoting Franklin Roosevelt, the president who led the US out of the Great Depression, he added: “They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred”.
Recap our live coverage of the manifesto launch below
Jeremy Corbyn will today say that he welcomes the hatred of the rich and powerful, as he unveils a Labour general election manifesto filled with radical plans including £75bn for the largest council house building programme in three generations.
In a defiant message to critics of his left-wing platform, the Labour leader will say that “ferocious” attacks on him are a sign that the powerful elite are scared of his determination to change a system rigged in their favour.
And quoting Franklin Roosevelt, the president who led the US out of the Great Depression, he will say: “They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred”.
The manifesto, entitled It’s Time for Real Change, will spell out Labour’s plans for income tax hikes for the wealthiest, nationalisation of key utilities, free broadband and a £10-an-hour minimum wage as Mr Corbyn fights to overturn the Conservative lead in the polls ahead of the 12 December election.
Labour would "look at" reducing existing student debt
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said a government would "look at" ways to reduce the debt that students who pay £9,000 a year fees have accumulated. The party has already promised to scrap tuition fees.
Ms Rayner said:
"If I am education secretary on December 13 we will make sure there are no longer student tuition fees.
"When we are in government we will look at the debt that the Lib Dems and the Conservatives have landed on our students."
Commenting on Labour's new pledge to spend £75bn on building 150,000 new low-cost homes over the next five years, Angela Rayner insisted that the promise could be met.,
She said:
"It absolutely is deliverable in a five-year parliament.
The reason why we believe it is is that the state is going to take more direct control. We've tried to get the private landlords and the people that own the land at the moment who are supposed to be making sure that we get affordable and social housing to do that and the market hasn't delivered."
She added:
"The Labour government in 1945, after the Second World War, had a real job on its hands. We created a welfare state, the National Health Service and council housing. The next Labour government will rebuild our housing stock by delivering council housing."
What are we expecting from Labour's manifesto launch?
Here's a useful rundown of what to expect in what the party is billing as it's most radical manifesto from the Press Association
- NHS
Labour has pledged to outspend the Tories in the key battleground by spending an extra £26 billion to rebuild "crumbling" hospitals and improve patient care.
A boost of an annual average of 4.3% in real-terms investment over the next four years has been promised to take the total Department of Health budget to £178 billion in 2023-24.
Dental check-ups and prescriptions would also become free for everyone in England.
- Brexit
Within three months a new deal with Brussels would be brokered, one that would see the UK remaining in the customs union and having access to the single market.
Then, within six months of electoral victory, the deal would be put to the public in a referendum along with the option to remain in the EU.
- Wages
The minimum wage would rise to £10-an-hour for everyone, including under-18s.
This plan forms part of Labour's war on poverty and its pledge to end the gender pay gap by 2030.
- Scotland
More than £70 billion of investment would head north of the border.
Opposition to another independence referendum is almost certain, though Mr Corbyn has not ruled out one taking place if there is the support in Scotland.
- Utilities
There is likely to be the commitment to bring the rail network back into public ownership as current franchises expire.
Bringing other utilities such as energy supply networks back into public control is also expected, as is the reversal of the privatisation of Royal Mail.
Local authorities would be given the power to bring bus services back into public control.
- Broadband
Every home and business would get free full-fibre internet by 2030 as Labour brings part of BT into public ownership to create a nationalised "British broadband service".
- Taxation
The top 5% of earners would pay more to fund public services, though the details are not yet clear.
Labour would shut down "tax tricks" by going after multinational corporations with a tax on their sales, workforce and operations as a share of their global activity.
- Education
Every adult would be entitled to six years of free study as part of its "cradle-to-grave" national education service, which would scrap university tuition fees and boost technical training.
Class sizes would be cut for five to seven-year-olds, 30 hours of free childcare would be given to all two to four-year-olds and new Sure Start children's centres would be opened.
- Housing
Labour is pledging to end the housing crisis by building 150,000 council and social homes a year in England within half a decade.
Some £75 billion of borrowing would be spent in five years to construct council and affordable housing in a massive boost from current building rates.
- Working week
A 32-hour working week would be introduced within 10 years with no loss to workers' pay. Labour expects this would be paid for by a boost to productivity.
- Immigration
Freedom of movement would continue if Remain won another referendum under Labour. But, if Leave won again, restrictions could be imposed.
Mr Corbyn said he would not commit to "arbitrary" targets as he highlighted the necessity of migrant workers to the economy, particularly the NHS.
- Environment
The climate crisis has been at the forefront of Labour's thinking in most of its pledges as it tries to make the economy carbon neutral by an as-yet unknown year.
But as part of its "green industrial revolution" it has also pledged 320,000 climate apprenticeships and billions in spending to upgrade every home to be energy efficient.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has said the Labour Party's policy of building 100,000 council houses a year by 2024 if it gets into power is "absolutely deliverable".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Ms Rayner said: "It is absolutely deliverable in a five-year Parliament and the reason why we believe it is is because the state is going to take more direct control."
Pushed on whether all of Labour's policies and pledges will be fully costed and deliverable in a five-year parliament, Ms Rayner added: "It is deliverable."
Asked whether Labour's manifesto will include a commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2030, she added: "Well we said we want net zero by 2030, it was a conference motion as well."
The big policy revealed by Labour in advance of its manifesto launch this morning was a pledge to spend £75bn building 150,000 more low-cost homes a year. The party promised:
- To build 100,000 council homes a year by 2024 - a 3,500 per cent increase.
- To get housing associations building 50,000 additional genuinely affordable homes in the same period.
- To scrap the government's definition of "affordable" homes, which allows rents to be set at up to 80 per cent of market rates. Instead, the new homes would either be social homes (around 50 per cent of market rents) or "living rent homes" (with rents set at a third of the average income of people in the area).
- To create a new tenure of housing for sale, where mortgage costs would be capped at a third of average local incomes.
The new homes would be paid for largely through borrowing. Labour promised to deliver the biggest housebuilding programme since the years after the Second World War.
Shadow cabinet travels to Birmingham to launch manifesto
Members of Corbyn's top team are heading up to Birmingham. Diane Abbott has posted a photo from her journey. Unfortunately there's not a G&T can in sight.
Corbyn won victory of Johnson among undecided voters, poll shows
Undecided voters gave Jeremy Corbyn a 59-41 per cent lead over Boris Johnson as best performer in last night’s ITV general election leaders’ debate, according to details of YouGov polling.
The two leaders were tied almost neck-and-neck among viewers overall in the survey, with Mr Johnson edging the contest by 51-49 per cent.
But Labour will be heartened by the fact that their leader appears to have gone down better with the potentially crucial swing voters who could decide the outcome of the 12 December general election. One party source said the figures were "encouraging".
On Labour's manifesto, Tim Roache, the general secretary at the GMB union, said:“Anyone who lives in the real world knows that things just aren't working."
Mr Roache, who attended the party's Clause V meeting at the weekend to finalise the manifesto, added:“A decade of cuts delivered by out of touch Tory Governments has left our NHS at breaking point, our schools crumbling and local Government on its knees.
“We have a list of crises as long as my arm - a social care crisis, a skills crisis, a manufacturing crisis, a standard of living crisis.Food banks are now the norm, insecure work is a business model for bad bosses. The number of homeless people you see every time you walk down the street is heart-breaking.
“This is the track record Boris Johnson is taking to the ballot box.We need real change, not tinkering around the edges of a system that was built by millionaires, in the interests of millionaires.
“Labour's manifesto shows how different things could be - the very richest in society paying their fair share to fund services we all rely on and build an economy that works for everyone.
“There’s a real choice at this election, this manifesto would change the lives of millions of people for the better.”
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