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.
