Labour is ‘real serious and here’, declares Corbyn at rally
Labour is “going all-out” to win the General Election and show its doubters that the party is “real, serious and here”, Jeremy Corbyn told an impassioned rally last night.
The Labour leader addressed a crowd of around 6,000 in Birmingham, alongside the likes of comedian Steve Coogan and the band Clean Bandit, in a music festivalstyle event.
Mr Corbyn was also joined by Saffiyah Khan, whose photograph went viral when she confronted an EDL protester in the city, for an event that was beamed to celebrity-endorsed Labour rallies in Barry, Brighton, Glasgow, London and Warrington.
He accused Theresa May and the Tories of underestimating Labour when they called the snap election and claimed they now rarely repeat the “strong and stable” slogan used at the start of the campaign, as polls have narrowed.
Mr Corbyn said the turning point in the election campaign was Labour’s manifesto, which included what polls indicate are popular policies such as renationalising key industries, borrowing to invest in infrastructure and boosting spending on the NHS and education, while increasing tax for corporations and the top 5% of earners.
After crowd chants of “for the many, not the few”, Labour’s campaign slogan, he said: “Let’s work together across the whole country to show them our programme is real, serious and here. And we are real, serious and here.
“And do you know what? We are going to change things.”
With just over a day until the polls open, Mr Corbyn promised to leave “no place untouched, no stone unturned”.
“We are going all-out to win this election,” he said.
Earlier, Alan Partridge actor Coogan could not resist a dig at the Prime Minister, who many have seen as having a difficult campaign, and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who made his only major intervention of the campaign yesterday in a speech laden with personal attacks on Mr Corbyn.
“Theresa May it seems now after all is not Margaret Thatcher mark II, she’s got the charisma of a pancake,” Coogan said.
“So they’ve had to wheel out Boris Johnson, the Tories’ upper class twit.
“Boris Johnson, the Tories’ clown, except he’s not that funny.
“He’s about as funny as tightness in the chest followed by shooting pains down the left thigh.”
The rally was closed by indie veterans The Farm, playing Labour’s campaign anthem All Together Now. Elsewhere, acclaimed actress Maxine Peake joined shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey at the event in Warrington, with musical entertainment from Reverend and the Makers.
In London, shadow chancellor John McDonnell was joined by comedian Ben Elton while rockers Wolf Alice performed a DJ set.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives stepped up their assault on Mr Corbyn, denouncing him as “muddled-headed” on terrorism and weak on Brexit.
Theresa May and Boris Johnson unleashed attacks on the Labour leader as a brace of opinion surveys suggested the UK may be heading for a hung Parliament on Friday.
And Conservatives highlighted a Labour manifesto promise to scrap marriage tax allowances, which they said could cost four million couples up to £230 a year.
In a high-profile speech in County
Durham, Mr Johnson warned that Brexit talks due to start later this month would “founder” if Mr Corbyn wins power.
Labour’s “herbivores” would be “eaten for breakfast” by Brussels bureaucrats, and Mr Corbyn’s position would be fatally undermined by the “jabbering” of possible coalition partners Nicola Sturgeon and Tim Farron demanding Britain stays in the EU, claimed Mr Johnson.
“For 30 years, [Mr Corbyn] has been soft and muddle-headed on terror. He has been soft and muddleheaded on defence. He has taken the side of just about every adversary this country has had in my lifetime, from the IRA to Hamas, from Soviet communism to General Galtieri,” the Foreign Secretary warned.
“I don’t mean to compare our European friends to any of these people, but it is psychologically impossible to imagine him having the grip or the firmness to get the right Brexit deal for this country.
“A Labour negotiating team would arrive in Brussels like a family of herbivores at a watering hole of lions. They would be eaten for breakfast.”
Addressing supporters in Stokeon-Trent, Mrs May said that the loss of six Tory seats in tomorrow’s poll would mean “Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street, Diane Abbott looking after our national security, John McDonnell at the Treasury with our economy and the strings being pulled by Nicola Sturgeon”.
Warning voters that they could not risk supporting other parties, she appealed: “Give me your backing to lead Britain, give me the authority to speak for Britain, strengthen my hand as I fight for Britain, give me your backing and I will deliver for Britain”.
But Liberal Democrat former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg accused Mrs May of a “spectacular failure of leadership” over Brexit by failing to prepare voters for the “huge, excruciatingly difficult, controversial” compromises she will have to make to secure a deal in Brussels.
As a result of her successful drive to woo back Eurosceptic supporters, Mrs May will effectively lead a merged Conservative/Ukip party in the next Parliament, and will go into negotiations with “no room to manoeuvre”, he said.