I could be in No 10 by
Corbyn arrives at the studio yesterday GLOATING Jeremy Corbyn yesterday insisted that he could be prime minister by Christmas.
Just days after Labour’s astonishing General Election surge, the hard-Left leader said he was expecting another national poll within months and insisted his party could win.
While he promised to support the push to leave the EU, he signalled that Labour will seek to wreck the Government programme due to be set out in the Queen’s Speech.
Defying
And after defying forecasts from many of his own MPs that he was leading Labour to electoral oblivion, Mr Corbyn declared that he was staying put in his job for the longterm.
“Look at me – I’ve got youth on my side,” the 68-year-old smirked.
Mr Corbyn was still grinning about Labour’s 9.5 per cent vote increase that gave his party an extra 30 MPs when he gave his first major broadcast interview since polling day yesterday.
Told by BBC1’s Andrew Marr that he looked “chipper”, the Labour leader said: “It’s a nice Sunday morning. And what better place to spend it than with you.”
Mr Corbyn used the interview to claim his resurgent party, boosted by the support of millions of younger voters, was ready to seize power.
Speaking as a new Survation poll gave Labour a five-point lead over the Tories, with Mr Corbyn’s party on 45 per cent and the Tories on 39 per cent, he said: “I think it’s quite possible, quite possible there will be an election later this year or early next year and that might be a good thing because we cannot go on with a period of great instability. We have a programme, we have the support and we’re ready to fight another election campaign as soon as maybe because we want to be able to serve the people of this country on the agenda we put forward which is transformative and has gained amazing levels of support.”
Turning to policy, Mr Corbyn vowed to oppose the Queen’s Speech in an attempt to bring down Theresa May’s administration.
“We’re going to put down a substantial amendment to the Queen’s
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Speech which will contain within it the main points of our manifesto, and so we’ll invite the House to consider all the issues we put forward which I’ve mentioned – jobs-first Brexit, mention the issues of young people and austerity – there’s many other things,” he said.
Mr Corbyn claimed he would not exploit the hung parliament left by the election to block the country’s departure from the EU and the bloc’s single market.
“Well, the single market is a requirement of EU membership and since we won’t be EU members there will have to be an arrangement made,” he said. Pressed if he was being clear that the UK will leave the EU, Mr Corbyn said: “Absolutely.
“Where I frame it is, we want a tariff-free access to the European market, we also want to maintain a very important university and research collaboration in Europe, and there’s a whole host of European agencies, Euratom, security, environment, which we wish to be part of.”
But he claimed the hung parliament meant the Government’s planned “Great Repeal Bill” that will convert EU directives into Brit-