Corbyn’s plan for a socialist state of Britain

÷Controls over rents across UK ÷Strike laws ripped up to please unions ÷No target on migration numbers

JEREMY Corbyn vowed to impose ‘21st century socialism’ on Britain yesterday, as he outlined plans for a massive expansion in the role of the State.

The Labour leader, buoyed by a cultlike following at the party’s conference in Brighton, boasted that he was leading the ‘government in waiting’.

He confirmed plans to nationalise large sectors of industry, bring in rent controls in the private housing market and introduce a ‘planned and managed’ economy.

And he said Labour no longer believed it was enough to redistribute wealth ‘within a system that isn’t delivering for most people’. He said a Labour government would intervene extensively to ‘transform’ the way the economy works.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn refused five times to say whether Britain would retain a recognisably capitalist economy under Labour. In a 75-minute address long on rhetoric and short on policy detail, Mr Corbyn:

Softened Labour’s stance on Brexit, saying the party would ‘guarantee unimpeded access to the single market’, regardless of the conditions set by Brussels;

Pledged to impose 1970s-style rent controls across the country;

Made no reference to the anti-Semitism scandal that has overshadowed this week’s conference in Brighton and seen Labour dubbed ‘the nasty party’;

Attacked Donald Trump and called on Theresa May to distance herself from the US President;

Vowed to tear up anti-strike laws and leave his union paymasters ‘freed of undemocratic fetters on their right to organise’;

Pledged to introduce fines for companies that fail to close the gender pay gap.

Criticised the Daily Mail for highlighting his decades-long role as an apologist for terrorist groups such as the IRA, Hezbollah and Hamas;

Said Grenfell Tower was a ‘tragic monument’ to Thatcherism;

Vowed that Labour ‘will never follow the Tories into the gutter of blaming migrants for the ills of society’, adding that the party’s Brexit policy ‘puts our economy first, not fake immigration targets that fan the flames of fear’.

The Conservatives last night said Labour’s economic plans would add £312 billion to the national debt, while business took fright at Mr Corbyn’s speech.

Adam Marshall, of the British Chambers of Commerce accused Labour of ‘flirting with fantasy economics’. He added: ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s speech will have done little to reassure companies already worried about widespread state intervention, nationalisation, and the radical increases in taxes and costs they could face under a future Labour government. Investors, both here at home and across the world, are also taking note.’ The CBI welcomed Labour’s increasingly pro-EU stance, but issued a warning over the rest of his programme, saying: ‘From nationalisation to business taxes, future investment, jobs and growth are being put at risk.’

Mark Littlewood, director-general at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda would be a race to the bottom for the economy, entrepreneurship and living standards in the UK. The rhetoric of his speech – that of state ownership, economic protectionism and rent controls – amounts to a socialist agenda that pretends the 1970s never happened.’

Lance Price, a former No10 adviser under Tony Blair, said Mr Corbyn was trapped in a ‘political and economic time warp’.

But Mr Corbyn said the election showed Britain was ready to embrace his hard-Left vision. He said his blueprint amounted to ‘socialism for the 21st century’.

Labour believes the mood in the country is increasingly turning against austerity, with Mr Corbyn saying that ‘2017 may be the year when politics finally caught up with the crash of 2008’.

Mr Corbyn made little reference to how Labour’s huge spending plans would be funded, but said business and the better-off would be made to ‘pay their share’.

The Labour leader said his party now represented the ‘political mainstream’. He said he was ready for power and, in a reference to this year’s snap election, urged Mrs May to ‘take another walking holiday and make another impetuous decision’. Afterwards, a Labour spokesman repeatedly refused to say whether Britain would remain a recognisably capitalist country.

Mr Corbyn admitted this week that Labour was braced for a run on the pound and a collapse in business investment if it won power.

First Secretary of State Damian Green said: ‘He’s already admitted that Labour are planning for a financial crisis if they take office – they know the costs of their policies would rack up and up, just like last time. Labour say they are ready for power but everything we’ve seen this week suggests they’re not fit to govern.’

‘Race to the bottom for the economy’ ‘Planning for a financial crisis’