Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will today outline
Labour’s transformational plan to invest in a National Education Service to
ensure no one is held back and create a more skilled workforce and productive
economy.

Labour’s plan to increase schools funding and introduce free,
lifelong education in colleges is at the heart of its commitment to create a
society run for the many not the few.

Jeremy will be joined by Angela Rayner, Shadow Education
Secretary, and Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy Secretary, at a college in Leeds on Wednesday to announce the details
of the plan.

Labour’s key pledges are:

• Stop the cuts to school budgets with a real terms increase in funding

• Reduce class sizes to under 30 for all five, six and seven year olds

• Free school meals for all primary school children

• Restore education maintenance allowance for college students

• Restore student grants for university students

• Scrap fees on courses for adult learners looking to re-train or upskill

The plans will be funded from the £19.4 billion that will be
raised by reversing the Conservative Party’s cuts to corporation tax. Labour
has previously announced extending free school meals to all primary age
children will be funded by levying VAT on private school fees.

Jeremy Corbyn said:

“People of all ages are being held back by a lack of funding for education,
and this in turn is holding back the economy by depriving industry of the
untapped talent of thousands of people.

“The Conservatives have spent seven years starving schools of
funding, meaning headteachers are having to send begging letters to parents to
ask for money. They have also cut support for students and forced colleges to
increase fees. It’s created a downward spiral that is bad for the people being
held back and bad for the economy.  

“Labour will do things differently. Our new National Education
Service will transform our schools and education system to ensure a future for
the many not the few. We will reverse the Conservatives’ tax giveaways to big
business and put money back where it belongs, in our schools, our colleges and
our communities.”

Angela Rayner said:

“Our plans for a new National Education Service show there is a
clear choice at this election. Between the Tories who have broken their
promises to parents and children, or a Labour party with a real plan for
education for the many not the few.

“We will invest in schools and in our young people, ensuring no
primary pupils go hungry during the day, reducing class sizes so children can
learn and teachers can teach, and restoring the maintenance allowance and
grants for students in both further and higher education.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

• Stop the cuts to school budgets with a real terms increase in funding

• Labour will ensure all schools have the funding they need, including £4.8 billion per year for English schools by 2021-22, as part of £5.66 billion additional annual funding across the UK by the end of the parliament.
• We estimate that preventing any losses under the proposed national funding formula in every year after the first will cost around £335 million.

• Reduce class sizes to under 30 for all five, six and seven year olds

• £8.4 billion capital investment to ensure schools have the number of places they need and £13.8 billion to ensure that school buildings are up to standard.

• Free school meals for all primary school children

• House of Commons Library research says extending free school meals for all primary children would cost £700-£900 million, paid for by VAT on private schools.

• Restore education maintenance allowance for college students

• Assuming the same proportion of 16-18 year olds qualify for EMA as previously the cost would be £582 million a year.

• Restore student grants for university students

• Total spend on maintenance grants in 2015/16 was £1.57 billion. If this is uprated in line with CPI inflation then the cost next year is £1.63 billion, rising to £1.73 billion by the end of the parliament.

• Scrap fees on courses for adult learners looking to re-train or upskill

• Increase the adult skills budget by £1.5 billion by the end of the parliament in order to abolish upfront fees and increase course funding by an average of 10 per cent year on year.

Corporation tax

• From next tax year, the headline rate of corporation tax will rise from its current 19 per cent to 21 per cent in 2018-19, 24 per cent in 2019-20 and 26 per cent in 2020-21. This will still leave it at the lowest rate in the G7. The small profits rate, payable by firms with profits below £300,000, will rise less sharply to 20 per cent in 2018-19 and 21 per cent in 2020-21

• According to Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility figures, the Tories’ tax giveaways are costing the exchequer £65.2 billion over the four years from 2018-19 to 2021-22, including £19.4 billion in the last year of the parliament. This contrasts with £46.8 billion based on the forecasts when the cuts were introduced.

John
McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on Theresa May’s refusal to
rule out a rise in National Insurance Contributions, said:

“Theresa
May has once again failed to rule out more National Insurance Contribution
increases. There is already a £2 billion black hole in the Budget from when the
Tories tried to sneak through a hike in NICs only a month ago, and it is
becoming clear they are looking to try to go ahead with this tax hike if
they’re re-elected next month.

“The
Tories still won’t rule out further tax rises on those with low and middle
incomes and are a threat to working people.

“Labour’s
personal tax guarantee rules out rises in National Insurance Contributions, VAT
and income taxes for the 95 per cent. Labour is now the party of low taxes for
the many and not the few.” 

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking at the party’s campaign launch in
Manchester, will say:

***Check
against delivery***

It’s great to be launching our campaign
in Greater Manchester where you showed the way for the rest of the country by
electing a Labour mayor, Andy Burnham.

Andy will be a great mayor – but just
think how much more he will be able to achieve if he is working with a Labour
Government committed to the many not the few.

We have four weeks. Four weeks to take
our message to voters to convince them Britain can be better. It can be
transformed. It doesn’t have to be like this.

We can transform Britain into a country
that – instead of being run for the rich – is a one where everyone can lead
richer lives.

And I mean richer in every sense.

Richer because all of us have potential
to fulfil, family to support, interests to pursue, richer when that potential
is not held back.

Because there is no doubt; Britain is being
held back.

If your children aren’t getting the
education they deserve because class sizes are too high.

Then your children are being held back.

If you’re a young couple, or anyone
trying to get a home and can’t make a home because rent and house prices are
too high.

Then you’re being held back.

And if you’ve worked hard all your life,
but can’t pursue your dreams in retirement because you’re supporting your
family well into adulthood.

Then you too are being held back.

But Britain is a rich country – the sixth
richest in the world.

We caught a glimpse of that wealth only
two days ago when Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times published its Rich List.

In the last year, Britain’s 1,000 richest
people have seen their wealth rise by 14 per cent to £658 billion – that’s
nearly six times the budget of our NHS.

Imagine the outcry if public sector
workers put in for a 14 per cent pay rise.

But it’s no surprise that the richest
have got even richer after the tens of billions the Tories have handed them in
tax cuts.

That’s what we mean when we say the
system is rigged for the rich.

So thanks for making that clear, Mr
Murdoch – though I imagine it’s the only help you will give us in this
campaign.

In fact, we expect hostility. Our
challenge to a rigged system is bound to meet hostility.

Change always involves taking on vested
interests.

And there is a real danger that the
Tories’ fearmongering and spin machine will make some people settle for less
than they should. Resign themselves to things the way they are –
underestimating just how many more burdens the Tories could impose if their
mission to rig the system for the rich isn’t halted.

The stakes are high. We know from last
week’s local elections how big the challenge is.

We have to convince the sceptical and
undecided. They are not sure which way to turn.

And who can blame them?

People are alienated from politics and politicians.

Our Westminster system is broken and our economy is rigged. Both are run
in the interests of the few.

Labour is under attack because we are standing up to the elites who are
determined to hijack Brexit to pay even less tax and take even more of the
wealth we all create.

Labour is under attack because we are standing
up to the corporate interests plundering our NHS. How much more will be
privatised if the Tories get another five years?

We’re drawing a line. Three decades of
privatisation – from energy and rail to health and social care – has made some
people very rich but it has not delivered richer lives for the majority.

In the coming days, we will be setting out our
plan to transform Britain – with an upgraded economy run for the many not the
few.

Theresa May thinks she can dodge the Tory record by claiming she wants
to build a fairer Britain, that she cares about working people.

But does she think people will forget how the Tories have actually
treated working people?  

It was this Tory leader who sat alongside David Cameron in government
for six years.

She was with him when they introduced the bedroom tax.

What’s remotely fair about the bedroom tax? What was fair about racking
up tuition fees? Or about taking benefits away from people with disabilities?

Or about closing Sure Start Centres. Or starving schools of cash. Or
opening up the NHS to be feasted on by profiteers.

In case their talk of fairness doesn’t wash, they have another card to
play. That this election is all about Brexit and who can play at being toughest
with Brussels.

Labour will not allow the Tories to put their party interests ahead of
the real national interest; the interests of the British people.

This election isn’t about Brexit itself. That issue has been settled.
The question now is what sort of Brexit do we want – and what sort of country
do we want Britain to be after Brexit?

Labour wants a jobs-first Brexit. A Brexit that safeguards the future of
Britain’s vital industries, a Brexit that paves the way to a genuinely fairer
society, protecting human rights, and an upgraded economy.

Labour’s plan to transform Britain will mean:

A big deal to upgrade the economy: new infrastructure to support the
industries of the future. And an investment in training and skills to equip our
workforce to compete globally.

It means rebuilding our NHS and social care services with the funding
they need.

It means building a million homes to rent and buy.

And it means tackling the scandal of air pollution which contributes to
40,000 deaths per year.

We won’t be paying lip-service to working people.

We will introduce a comprehensive programme to strengthen rights at
work, make sure new jobs are good jobs, and end the race to the bottom in pay,
conditions and job security.

Low pay and insecurity have spread like an epidemic under the Tories.

Labour will invest in skills and jobs, and take action to enforce a
floor under employment standards across the board – so that all jobs are decent
jobs, so that all workers – the true wealth creators – can play their part in
transforming Britain and benefit fully from it.

That’s why we are fighting to win this election.

So we can transform Britain for the many
not the few.

When we win, the British people win. The nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the
builder, the office worker win.

Labour is offering a real choice, a real alternative to the rigged
system holding us back and to the Conservatives who are running our country
down.

The economy is still rigged in favour of the rich and powerful.

When Labour wins there will be a reckoning for those who thought they
could get away with asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through
their greed and ripping off workers and consumers.

When did the Conservatives – David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May,
Boris Johnson – ever stand up to their financial backers and demand our money
back?

Never and they never will.

Instead, they make others foot the bill – they make our nurses, our
carers, our soldiers, our disabled, our young people trying to get a home of
their own, our elderly looking for dignity in retirement and those working hard
to get on, foot the bill.

It makes me angry. And I know it makes the people of Britain angry too.

So today, I say to tax cheats, the rip off bosses, the greedy bankers;
enough is enough.

In this election, Labour is standing for decent jobs, investment for the
future, shared wealth creation, security at work, affordable homes for all, a
fully funded NHS and schools, training and skills, an end to rip-off
privatisation, fair taxation and a fairer, more equal country.

As we set out our detailed plans for Britain, the scale of the change we
are offering will become clear.

So let’s turn our country around. Let’s come together to transform
Britain. Together, we can win for the many not the few.

Don’t wake up on 9 June to see celebrations from the tax cheats, the
press barons, the greedy bankers, Philip Green, the Southern Rail directors and
crooked financiers that take our wealth, who have got away with it because the
party they own, the Conservative Party, has won.

We have four weeks to ruin their party. We have four weeks to have a
chance to take our wealth back.

We have four weeks to show what kind of country we are. We know that the
people of Britain don’t pass by on the other side. That is the principle we
will take into government so that we can unlock every person’s potential and
everyone can make their best contribution to our society.

We have four weeks to win and transform Britain for the many not the
few.

We must seize that chance.

Thank you.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s
Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in response to
the Conservatives’ announcement on an energy price cap, said:

“This is desperate stuff from the Tories,
re-announcing something they tried to get a headline for just a fortnight ago.
But just as when they announced it last time, there’s still no proper detail
nor any real commitment to helping working people.

“When the Tories say they’ll ‘cap’ bills, the
question they need to answer is whether they can guarantee bills won’t go up
for people next year – that’s the real test. A cap suggests a maximum amount
that can be charged, not a promise that bills won’t go up year on year.

“The reality is that the Tories aren’t offering
anything for working people. Their record is one of failure and broken
promises, letting ordinary people down at every turn. Over and over they’ve
promised to get bills down but under them households are almost £900 worse off
due to increase energy bills since 2010.

"Only Labour can be trusted to deliver a country
for the many rather than just the few. All the Tories offer is broken promises
and a record which has seen working people worse off.”

The next
Labour government will make parking at NHS England hospitals free for patients,
visitors and NHS staff. Labour created the NHS to be free at the point of use,
so the next Labour government will eradicate the hidden charges of car parking
fees.

Labour
will increase the rate of Insurance Premium Tax to 20% for private healthcare
insurance products to fund the policy, replacing the £162 million England’s
underfunded hospitals currently raise from car parking charges by scrapping the
subsidy for people that can afford it, rather than charging people who can’t.

Last
month, a Freedom of Information request by Unison revealed some hospitals are
charging staff, including nurses struggling with low wages, nearly £100 a month
to park, resulting in reports of nurses having to rush out in between
appointments to move their cars and avoid fines.

All
of Labour’s new spending commitments are fully costed and transparent. This
policy will be paid for by a new charge on private healthcare insurance.

Announcing
the policy, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said: 

“Labour
will end hospital parking charges, which place an unfair and unnecessary burden
on families, patients and NHS staff. Hospital parking charges are a tax on
serious illnesses.

“Our
hospitals are struggling from under-funding at the hands of Theresa May’s
Conservative government, but the gap should not be filled by charging sick
patients, anxious relatives and already hard-pressed NHS staff for an essential
service.

“Our NHS
needs a Labour government that will stand up for the many, not the few.”