We are the mainstream now, Corbyn claims as businesses count the cost
Jeremy Corbyn has claimed Labour’s left-wing politics are the “political mainstream” as he pledged to dismantle Margaret Thatcher’s economic legacy and usher in a new era of mass-participation democracy.
The Labour leader told conference delegates in Brighton that their party was a “government in waiting” which is “campaign-ready” for another snap election.
But he was accused of indulging in “fantasy economics” after a conference which has seen the cost of Labour’s redistributive agenda spiral by billions of pounds.
Mr Corbyn said: “A new consensus is emerging from the great economic crash and the years of austerity, when people started to find political voice for their hopes for something different and better.”
He added: “This is the real centre of gravity of British pol- itics. We are now the political mainstream.”
Calling for the pay cap to beliftedforallpublicsector workers, Mr Corbyn said: “Everyone praises them, but it is Labour that values them and is prepared to give them the pay rise they deserve and protect the services they provide.”
The Labour leader drew on the Grenfell Tower disaster and grooming by gangs as examples of scandals that have taken place because ordinary people have been shut out of politics.
He said Labour would bring forward rent controls and measures to ensure regeneration no longer results in gentrification, with tenants forced to make way for developments that drive up rents and push them out of their neighbourhoods.
The Scottish Labour leadership contender Richard Leonard said he would bring forward a private member’s bill named after First World War housing campaigner Mary Barbour seeking a rent cap in Scotland.
Stephen Martin of the Institute of Directors said: “Labour may see themselves as a government in waiting, but if they are to govern, they will need to recognise that business is not the enemy.”
Adam Marshall of the British Chambers of Commerce warned businesses were “already worried about widespread state intervention, nationalisation, and the radical increases in taxes and costs they could face under a future Labour government.”