Corbyn: I’m no Trump on the economy Labour leader launches party’s industrial strategy in Birmingham
JEREMY Corbyn denied he was echoing Donald Trump’s brand of economic nationalism as he launched his party’s new manufacturing and industry strategy – Build It In Britain – in Birmingham this week.
The Labour leader was asked if his policies smacked of Donald Trump’s protectionist economic decisions.
But speaking to an audience at the EEF engineer training centre in Aston on Tuesday, he said it was probably the first time he had been compared to Trump.
He said: “Donald Trump is promoting some awful ideas in the United States, such as the wall with Mexico and his attitude towards of Muslim people.”
Trump is also promoting economic nationalism, but Labour definitely was not, he said. Britain cannot be cut off, Mr Corbyn argued.
“We are a country which absolutely has to trade with the rest of the world. That’s where Birmingham and Manchester grew up, all based on exports and trade.”
He said he wanted to back manufacturing using state influence and funding, and support smaller and medium businesses. The Labour leader supports using Government intervention and spending power to help British business and grow the economy after Brexit.
Labour, claimed Mr Corbyn, wants to use the vast £200 billion a year spending power of the Government to back British business by purchasing services and offering contracts to those who create good quality jobs in the UK, rather than basing everything on price.
Mr Corbyn said: “We have plenty of capacity to build train carriages in the UK and yet repeatedly over recent years these contracts have been farmed out abroad, costing our economy crucial investment, jobs for workers and tax revenues.
“If we want to reprogramme our economy so that it works for everybody, we must use powers we have to back good jobs and industry here.
“Between 2014 and 2017, Network Rail awarded contracts worth tens of millions of pounds to companies outside of the UK, while the NHS awarded contracts worth over a billion. In the same period, the Ministry of Defence awarded contracts elsewhere worth over £1.5 billion pounds, even though we are under no obligation, under either Europe-
We are a country which absolutely has to trade with the rest of the world Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
an or international law, to open up defence contracts to overseas bidders.”
He said that contracting out was a political choice and that France, Germany and Italy all managed to back their own industries without breaking EU state aid regulations.
He said it meant Labour’s policy was not dependent on a harder Brexit.
On public pay, the Government dsought to help teachers, nurses, soldiers and other public sector workers by lifting a pay increase cap to 3.5 per cent.
But Mr Corbyn said this did not go far enough and agreed with unions that they should get nearer five per cent to keep pace with the cost of living. And he warned of further cuts. He said: “It’s also important to understand there’s no increase in funding to the public sector to pay for this. Increasing the pay levels, albeit by less than the rate of inflation, that can only be paid for by cuts within public services. If it’s local authorities they will have to pay for it by moving balances which they shouldn’t be doing or cutting public services further. There has to be an increase of money paid into public services in order to increase pay.”
He said he would do this by taxation, increased economic growth and corporate taxation.