Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking at the
launch of The Labour Party Manifesto 2017 in Bradford, said:
***CHECK AGAINST
DELIVERY***
It’s a pleasure to be in Bradford today
to launch Labour’s manifesto, “For the many not the few”.
I’m pleased to be here in Bradford
University where that great Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson was the first
Chancellor. Harold Wilson had a vision for Britain and created the institutions
to match, like the Open University.
Today we set out vision to transform
Britain for the 21st century.
This manifesto is the first draft of a
better future for the people of our country. A blueprint of what Britain could
be and a pledge of the difference a Labour government can make.
Like thousands of other Labour party
members, I’ve been making that case to people across the country over the last
few weeks. As this campaign has continued, for an election called by a
Prime Minister with scant regard for her own solemn pledges, opinion has
started to move towards Labour.
There is no great secret as to the
reason.
People want a country run for the many
not the few.
That is because for the last seven years
our people have lived through the opposite; a Britain run for the rich, the
elite and the vested interest
They have benefitted from tax cuts and
bumper salaries while millions have struggled.
Whatever your age or situation, people
are under pressure, struggling to make ends meet.
Our manifesto is for you.
Parents worrying about the prospects for
their children and anxious about the growing needs of their own elderly
parents.
Young people struggling to find a secure
job and despairing of ever getting a home of their own.
Children growing up in poverty.
Students leaving college burdened with
debt.
Workers who have gone years without a
real pay rise coping with stretched family budgets.
Labour’s mission, over the next five
years, is to change all that.
Our manifesto spells out how. With a
programme that is radical and responsible.
A programme that will reverse our
national priorities to put the interests of the many first.
Will change our country while managing
within our means.
And will lead us through Brexit while
putting the preservation of jobs first.
Let me highlight just a few of our key
pledges, and believe it or not, you haven’t read them all already.
We are ruling out rises on VAT and
National Insurance and on income tax for all but the richest 5% of high
earners.
Labour will boost the wages of 5.7
million people earning less than the living wage to £10 an hour by 2020.
Labour will end the cuts in the National
Health Service to deliver safe staffing levels and reduce waiting lists.
Labour will scrap tuition fees, lifting
the debt cloud from hundreds of thousands of young people.
Labour will move towards universal
childcare expanding free provision for 2, 3 and 4 year olds in the next
Parliament.
Labour is guaranteeing the triple lock to
protect pensioners’ incomes.
And we will build over a million new
homes, at least half for social rent.
Labour makes no apology for offering new
protections to people at work, including ending the scandal of zero-hour
contracts.
Or for finding the resources to hire
10,000 new police officers and 3,000 new firefighters.
And we will do the smaller things that
still make a real difference – like ending hospital car parking charges or
introducing four extra bank holidays a year.
But we in Labour
recognise that solving these problems requires a thriving economy. One
that gets our economy working again, and rises to the challenges of Brexit for
jobs and investment.
For seven years
the Conservatives have been holding Britain back.
Low investment,
low wages, low growth.
Labour will move
Britain forward with ambitious plans to unlock the country’s potential.
Labour will set
up a National Investment Bank and regional development banks to finance growth
and good jobs in all parts of the UK through major capital projects.
Labour will
invest in our young people through a National Education Service focussed on
childcare, schools and skills, giving them the capacity to make a productive
contribution to tomorrow’s economy.
Labour will take
our railways back into public ownership, to put the passenger first.
We will take back
control of our country’s water by bringing it into regional public ownership.
And we will take
a public stake in the energy sector to help keep fuel prices down and ensure a
balanced and green energy policy for the future.
The Tories now want to scare us into
accepting more of the same.
Only Labour has a plan ambitious enough
to unleash the country’s potential.
And only Labour has a plan to make Brexit
work for ordinary people. We are clear: The choice is now a Labour
Brexit that puts jobs first, or a Tory Brexit that will be geared to the
interests of the City, and will risk making Britain a low-wage tax haven.
As we leave the European Union, because
that is what the people have voted for, only Labour will negotiate a deal that
preserves jobs and access to the single market, preserves rights and does not
plunge our country into a race to the bottom.
All this is costed, as the documents
accompanying our manifesto make clear. Our revenue-raising plans ensure
we can embark on this ambitious programme without jeopardising our national
finances.
We are asking the better-off and the big
corporations to pay a little bit more – and, of course, to stop dodging their
tax obligations in the first place.
And in the longer term we look to a
faster rate of growth, driven by increased private and public investment, to
keep our accounts in shape.
This is a programme of hope.
The Tory campaign, by contrast, is built
on one word: Fear
What would another 5 years of
Conservative government mean for Britain?
Just look back at the last seven:
More children in poverty.
Fewer young couples able to buy their
first home.
More people queuing at food banks.
Fewer police on the beat … fewer
firefighters too.
More people are in work but they’re not
getting the pay or the hours to make ends meet.
More young people are in debt.
Will the Tories change their spots?
Don’t bank on it.
Their record says they wont.
Theresa May will disagree of course.
So I say to her today: Prime
Minister, come out of hiding and let’s have that debate on television so
millions can make up their minds.
What are you afraid of? It’s not
too late
Let’s debate our two manifestos
Have the argument
I am confident that once the British
people get the chance to study the issues
Look at the promises
They will decide that Britain has been
held back by the Tories.
That the few have prevailed over the many
for too long.
And that they will decide it is now time
for Labour.
Our country will only work for the many
not the few if opportunity is in the hands of the many. So our manifesto is a
plan for everyone to have a fair chance to get on in life, because our country
will only succeed when everyone succeeds.
Thank you.
View the Labour Party manifesto here>
Download Funding Britain’s Future here>
read more
