JEREMY Corbyn will today say that any snap general election will put Britain at a crossroads facing a “once-in-a-generation chance to change direction” and likening it to the watershed polls of 1945 and 1979.
The Labour leader will brand Boris Johnson “Britain’s Trump, the fake populist and phoney outsider,” who will protect the vested interests of a rich elite.
In a speech in the key Conservative marginal of Corby in the East Midlands – once dubbed "Little Scotland" because of the large number of Scots who moved south to work at the local steelworks – Mr Corbyn will set out his vision to “rebuild Britain”.
Insisting he will do everything in his power to stop a no-deal Brexit, Mr Corbyn will claim that Boris Johnson wants to take Britain off a cliff-edge to enable him to create a tax haven for the super-rich on the shores of Europe and to sign a sweetheart trade deal with Donald Trump. “Not so much a no-deal Brexit as a Trump Deal Brexit,” he will declare.
On the prospect of a general election this autumn, the party leader will say: “Labour believes the decision on how to resolve the Brexit crisis must go back to the people. And if there is a general election this autumn, Labour would commit to holding a public vote, to give voters the final say with credible options for both sides, including the option to remain.”
He will argue that while a no-deal Brexit poses a huge threat to the country, there are even greater problems that it faces.
“A general election triggered by the Tory Brexit crisis will be a crossroads for our country. It will be a once-in-a-generation chance for a real change of direction, potentially on the scale of 1945 or 1979. Things cannot go on as they were before.
“The Conservatives and the wealthy Establishment they represent have failed our country. They have failed to protect living standards, savaged our public services, deepened inequality and failed to keep us safe. Boris Johnson and his hard-right Tory Cabinet have direct responsibility for the Tory decade of devastating damage done to our communities and the fabric of our society.
“However the Brexit crisis is resolved, the country faces a fundamental choice. Labour offers the real change of direction the country needs: a radical programme to rebuild and transform communities and public services, invest in the green jobs and high-tech industries of the future and take action to tackle inequality and climate crisis.
“The Tories have lurched to the hard Right under Boris Johnson, Britain’s Trump, the fake populist and phoney outsider, funded by the hedge funds and bankers, committed to protecting the vested interests of the richest and the elites, while posing as anti-Establishment.”
Mr Corbyn will argue the next Election will come down to one simple question: who can voters trust.
“The Tories under Boris Johnson cannot be trusted to deliver on their quick fix election promises - because their priority is tax cuts for the big corporations and the richest. Boris Johnson and the Tories can’t be trusted to deliver for the majority because they will always look after their own. Instead of fixing a failed system, they will turbocharge its inequalities, insecurities and climate destruction.
“Labour can be trusted to deliver: to end austerity, to take on the elites and the vested interests holding people back, and to transform our country for the many, not the few.”
After years of elite-driven austerity and neglect, the party leader will say a Labour government would “recharge our politics with a massive injection of democracy, kicking out the big money interests and putting the people in the driving seat”.
He will add: “We will rebuild our public services by taxing those at the top to properly fund services for everyone. We will drive up people’s living standards by boosting pay, improving rights and running our utilities and parts of the economy in the interests of the millions, not the multi-millionaires. And we will transform our communities with investment in every part of our country, breathing new life into our high streets, giving security to older people and hope and opportunities to our young people."
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