CORBYN STILL DUCKS ELECTION
He calls for Boris to go... but rules out a vote of confidence
JEREMY Corbyn was accused of running scared last night after he again vowed to block a general election until Boris Johnson asks Brussels for yet another Brexit delay.
Addressing the party conference yesterday, the Labour leader insisted Mr Johnson should resign as Prime Minister, and there should be a national vote as soon as possible.
But despite saying he wanted him out of office, he ruled out staging a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s Government – or allowing him to call an election until a No Deal Brexit has been ruled out.
It means Mr Corbyn is effectively keeping the Prime Minister in No10 and holding him hostage in an attempt to force him to ask the EU for a Brexit extension beyond October 31.
The Labour leader yesterday pledged to be a ‘different kind of prime minister’ in his conference speech, which was brought forward a day after the Supreme Court’s ruling that the suspension of Parliament was unlawful.
Mr Corbyn had been due to close the conference in Brighton today, but changed his plans after it was announced the Commons would re-open this morning.
In his speech, which came just hours after the Supreme Court announced its judgment, Mr Corbyn demanded Mr Johnson
‘A government of the entitled’
quit. ‘This unelected Prime Minister should now resign,’ he told a packed hall of delegates. ‘That would make him the shortest serving British Prime Minister in history and rightly so.
‘His is a born-to-rule government of the entitled who believe that the rules they set for everyone else don’t apply to them.’
The Labour leader claimed the Brexit crisis ‘can only be settled with a general election’ but he said he would prevent that taking place until ‘this Government’s threat of a disastrous No Deal is taken off the table’.
‘After what has taken place no one can trust this government and this Prime Minister not to use this crisis of their own making and drive our country over a No Deal cliff edge in five weeks’ time,’ he claimed.
When an election takes place, Mr Corbyn said Labour would run the ‘biggest people-powered campaign this country has ever seen’ thanks to its hundreds of thousands of members.
If he wins, the party leader said he will be a ‘very different kind of prime minister’.
He said: ‘If the British people elect a Labour government in the coming election I will be proud to be your prime minister.
‘Because I will be a very different kind of prime minister. Not there from a sense of born-to-rule entitlement. The tide is turning. The years of retreat and defeat are coming to an end. Together, we can take on the privileged, and put the people in power.’
And he told party members: ‘Go forward to win an election for the people of the country.’
The Labour leader said his party’s foreign policy would be defined by a commitment to ‘human rights and international justice’ rather than an ‘enthusiasm for foreign wars that fuel... terrorism and insecurity’. He added: ‘Real security doesn’t come from belligerent posturing or reckless military interventions. It comes from international co-operation and diplomacy, and addressing the root causes of the threats that we all face.
‘Our foreign policy, our international strategy, will be defined by our commitment to human rights and international justice, not enthusiasm for foreign wars that fuel rather than combat terrorism and insecurity.
‘So it really does beggar belief that this week Boris Johnson is openly talking about sending troops to Saudi Arabia as part of the increasingly very dangerous confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, in an apparent bid to appease Donald Trump. Have we learned nothing? Time and again over the last two decades the British political and military establishments have made the wrong call on military intervention in the Middle East, spreading conflicts rather than settling them.’
Mr Corbyn took aim at Mr Johnson, telling delegates: ‘When Boris Johnson compared Muslim women to letterboxes or bank robbers, it wasn’t a flippant comment, it was calculated to play on people’s fears.
Displays of racism, islamophobia or antiSemitism are not a sign of strength, but a sign of weakness.
‘We must not make those mistakes again. Under a labour government Britain will be a force of pressure for peace and international justice.’
last night Tory chairman James Cleverly said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s offer is clear – more pointless delay and a wrecked economy, leaving the country with higher taxes and fewer jobs. He can’t even lead his own party, let alone the country.
‘Corbyn has repeatedly blocked the country having its say in an election, because he doesn’t trust the people and won’t deliver the change they voted for. Only Boris Johnson will deliver Brexit by October 31, while delivering on the people’s priorities – investing in the NHS, reducing violent crime and cutting the cost of living.’