Change is coming, Britain’s Labour warns governing Conservatives

LONDON: ‘Change is coming,’ a leading member of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party will warn the Conservative government, vowing to bring the power of a ‘ few thousand super elite’ to a ‘shuddering halt’.

Jon Trickett, Labour’s cabinet office spokesman, will pledge in a speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank to overturn Britain’s ‘rigged economy’ if his party forces out the Conservatives, who he will say are protecting it.

With no election due until 2022 and the two parties neck-and-neck in the polls, Labour is trying to gain an advantage by focusing on tackling inequality in Britain, promising to raise taxes on the super-rich and nationalising key utilities.

Trickett, who is charged with preparing Labour for government and a senior member of leader Jeremy Corbyn’s team, will again press that message home, saying commentators who describe communities as having been ‘left behind’ are wrong.

“In fact they have been held back. Held back by a deliberately rigged economic and political system which denies too many a voice in their own future,” he will say, according to excerpts of his speech.

“There is a restlessness here. A mounting dissatisfaction.”

Corbyn, a Socialist who was unexpectedly elected leader in 2015, has moved Labour to the left, often clashing with his lawmakers in parliament but gaining thousands of new party members, often among the young.

His team say by concentrating on social and economic issues rather than on Brexit that has divided Britain, they can win over voters who are increasingly disillusioned by politics. — Reuters