Prepare for government in next year, says Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has warned Theresa May that Labour will vote down her Brexit deal and force a general election that Labour would win within a year.

In his closing speech at the party’s conference, the Labour leader promised a “radical plan to rebuild and transform our country”, including handing over shares in public companies to their employees.

But he stopped short of an apology over handling of anti-semitism claims.

Even at 86, no-one does a warm-up act like Dennis Skinner. The Beast of Bolsover was feeling particularly vigorous yesterday, praising the NHS staff (many of them immigrants) who have helped keep him beastly.

One doctor had “pounded away at my groin” during heart bypass surgery, he told the massive crowd gathered to hear Jeremy Corbyn.

You’d think that would only be available on private insurance.

Skinner said prime minis-

ter Corbyn should “nationalise something every week”, and the crowd was further primed by a local choir singing Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come.

There was no bigger change than the one on stage. Once a humourless, mechanical speaker, the Labour leader beamed confidently as he adlibbed jokes and gave heartwarming thanks to his wife in her native Spanish.

In Liverpool, Labour has felt like a party that believes it can win a general election – and Corbyn looked like a

leader who believes he can be prime minister. And they believe they can do it on their terms.

Corbyn wasn’t going to offer an apology for months of pain and division over Labour’s response to antisemitism at all levels its ranks – and he doubled down by committing to recognise Palestine on day one of a Labour government.

He attacked the legacy of New Labour in setting up the conditions for the financial crash, but there were concessions to his

obvious coveting of power.

He accepted evidence that the Salisbury poison attack was mounted by Russia, and listed 1997 among great Labour election victories to emulate.

There was just one stumble – when a policy he clearly feels deeply uncomfortable with caught in his throat.

Corbyn could barely bring himself to say that “all options are on the table” to tackle Brexit, including a choice to stay in the European Union as part of a second referendum.

Watching delegates didn’t mind. This week, the EU flags have been held by protesters outside the conference venue, while inside the hall Palestinian banners have been waved in their hundreds.

Corbyn doesn’t want to reverse Brexit – he wants it to propel him into Downing Street.

“Labour is ready,” the Labour leader told delegates as fired up as patient Skinner after a hospital appointment.

For the first time, he and they believe a change is gonna come.