Corbyn Starts U.K. Election Campaign Attacking ‘Corrupt System’
Corbyn, for his part, says he’ll renegotiate the deal and then put the resulting agreement to a new in-out referendum.
Jeremy Corbyn will blast what he calls the U.K.’s “corrupt system” as he kick-starts Labour’s campaign to overthrow Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the Dec. 12 general election.
The opposition Labour Party leader will deliver his first speech of the campaign with an attack on billionaires including News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Sports Direct International Plc founder Mike Ashley, according to excerpts emailed by the party. He’ll also reiterate Labour’s plans to nationalize rail, mail and water companies.
“This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform our country, take on the vested interests holding people back and ensure that no community is left behind,” Corbyn will say. “We’re going after the tax dodgers. We’re going after the dodgy landlords. We’re going after the bad bosses. We’re going after the big polluters.”
Corbyn’s core message -- a pledge to stand with the “many” and not the “privileged few,” is an echo of the themes he used to some effect in the 2017 election, confounding the polls to deprive then- Prime Minister, Theresa May, of her majority. Trailing in the polls again, this time he hopes to go a step further and take office.
"When Labour wins, the nurse wins, the pensioner wins, the student wins, the office worker wins, the engineer wins,” Corbyn is to say, according to the excerpts. “We all win.”
Johnson called the election to break the deadlock in Parliament, which has failed over the past three years to pass a deal to take the U.K. out of the European Union and deliver on the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum.
The prime minister says if he wins a majority, he’ll push through his deal and deliver Brexit by the new deadline of Jan. 31. Corbyn, for his part, says he’ll renegotiate the deal and then put the resulting agreement to a new in-out referendum.
“A vote for Labour is not a vote for change,” Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly said in a statement responding to Corbyn’s expected remarks. “It is precisely the opposite: a vote for more delay and uncertainty on Brexit, meaning the government can’t focus on people’s priorities, like the NHS, schools and crime.”
The House of Lords late on Wednesday approved the bill setting the date of the early election, and Parliament is likely to be dissolved early next week for the official campaign to begin.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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