‘We are now the party of the political mainstream’
ACONFIDENT Jeremy Corbyn addressed a jubilant conference audience and declared that Labour is now the party of the political mainstream.
The Labour leader told the packed Brighton hall that Labour was a socialist party that had “rediscovered its roots”.
Mr Corbyn, who faced a leadership challenge in 2016, used his time in the limelight to portray the Conservatives as a divided party that had neglected the public interest by engaging in internal power struggles.
He said: “This is a weak and divided Government with no purpose beyond clinging to power.”
Mr Corbyn promised an overhaul of the economy, pledged to renationalise utilities, attacked President Trump and called for a new approach to foreign policy.
Describing how he wants to put Thatcherism into reverse, he said: “There is a new common sense emerging about how the country should be run. That’s what we fought for in the election and that’s what’s needed to replace the broken model forged by Margaret Thatcher many years ago.”
Pledging to return privatised utilities to public ownership, he said: “[Labour] is looking not just to repair the damage done by austerity but to transform our economy with a new and dynamic role for the public sector particularly where the private sector has evidently failed... [We] are committed to take back our utilities into public ownership.”
He accused the Conservatives of abandoning the national interest on Brexit.
He said: “Never was the national interest so ill-served on such a vital issue. If there were no other reason for the Tories to go, their self-interested Brexit bungling would be reason enough.”
Turning his guns on the cabinet, he said: “This rag-tag Cabinet spends more time negotiating with each other than they do with the European Union. A cliff-edge Brexit is at risk of becoming a reality.”
He claimed a Labour Brexit deal would secure “unimpeded access to the single market” and a “new cooperative relationship with the EU”.
Senior cabinet ministers Conservative, he said, were “at each other’s throats, squabbling and plotting, manoeuvring to bundle the Prime Minister out of Number 10 and take her place at the first opportunity instead of getting to grips with the momentous issues facing our country”.
Mr Corbyn described how he wants England to follow Wales’ lead and move to an opt-out system of organ donation.
He said: “There are more than 5,000 people on organ transplant waiting lists, but a shortage of donors means that in recent years only 3,500 of them get the life-saving treatments they need... The law has already been changed in Wales under the leadership of Carwyn Jones and the Welsh Labour Government.
“Thank you Carwyn, and thank you Welsh Labour for that and many other things. And today I make the commitment a Labour government will do the same for England.”
Mr Corbyn condemned recent terrorist attacks in the UK and pledged support for emergency and security services but added: “[We] also know that terrorism is thriving in a world, frankly, our governments have helped to shape, with its failed states, military interventions and occupations – where millions are forced to flee conflict or hunger.”
He added: “We have to do better and swap the knee-jerk response of another bombing campaign for long-term help to solve the conflicts rather than fuel them. And we must put our values at the heart of our foreign policy.”
Mr Corbyn also called for “real support to end the oppression of the Palestinian people, the 50-year occupation and illegal settlement expansion and move to a genuine twostate solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict”.
Stating that the centre ground of UK politics has changed, he said: “It shifts as people’s expectations and experiences change and political space is opened up. Today’s centre ground is certainly not where it was 20 or 30 years ago.
“A new consensus is emerging from the great economic crash and the years of austerity, when people started to find a political voice for their hopes for something different and better; 2017 may be the year when politics finally caught up with the crash of 2008 – because we offered people a clear choice...
“We are now the political mainstream.”
Swansea West Labour MP Geraint Davies welcomed the speech, saying: “Jeremy has grown into the Prime Minister-in-waiting with action ready to roll on housing, low pay, single market access and even extending Wales’ organ donation regime to England. As every day Welsh people realise that they face threats to their jobs, rights and
money from Brexit it’s clear they deserve a vote on the Brexit deal.
“Labour hasn’t promised that yet but our support the single market and customs union is a big step forward. “
Blaenau Gwent Labour MP Nick Smith said: “It was good in particular to hear about the consideration of the ‘opt-out’ model for organ donation – Welsh Labour has been leading the way on this for some time, and as a supporter of Kidney Wales I think this is an important step in the right direction.”
But Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s speech summed up the problem with Labour: lots of big promises, but no explanation of how they would deliver them... Labour’s plans would rack up a bill of over £300bn, run public services into the ground, and, by their own admission, lead to financial collapse. If you want a flavour of what happens when you let Labour into Government, just look at Wales: Our schools are the worst in the UK, we have the lowest take home pay in the UK, and we are twice as likely as people in England to be on an NHS waiting list.”
Llanelli Labour MP Nia Griffith commented: “As Jeremy Corbyn said in his speech, under his leadership, we really are moving the centre ground in politics and people are clearly warming to Labour’s radical proposals to tackle inequalities and create a society that works for the many and not just the few.”
Aberavon Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said: “This was a strong speech from the next Prime Minister... Labour are the only party with any energy and ideas in Britain today, and I think we saw that not only in the hall today, but across conference all week.
“Jeremy laid down a real challenge to Theresa May ahead of her conference next week: step up or step aside. The stakes are too high for our economy, young and old alike, for everyone across Wales and Britain.”
However, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards said: “Corbyn was quick to claim the cross-party Organ Donation Bill as a Labour victory, despite the fact it was originally championed by Plaid Cymru AM Dr Dai Lloyd. He failed to mention the fact that it is Labour in Wales that is capping NHS workers’ wages, or that tuition fees will rise at the same rate as they do in England, thanks to his Welsh colleagues in Cardiff...
“The truth of the matter is, Wales continues to be lumbered with a lacklustre Labour government that is actively pursuing the opposite policies to what Corbyn claims to represent.”
Cardiff North Labour MP Anna McMorrin said: “I thought it was a really positive speech full of hope and I think Jeremy got the tone right, I think he got the policy absolutely right.”
As a newly-elected MP, Ms McMorrin sat on the stage during the speech.
She said: “It was an amazing experience because you’re there looking out at crowds of people... People need change, people want change.”
Cardiff South and Penarth Labour MP Stephen Doughty commented: “Jeremy Corbyn was right to condemn the Tory Government’s right-wing and reckless plans for a hard and destructive Brexit... Labour must be a bold and decisive force on Brexit in Parliament and the UK just as Carwyn is standing up for Wales – and it is very welcome that Jeremy and [Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer] have committed to continue to listen to the Labour movement, our trade unions and Labour voters as the Tory shambles on Brexit further emerges.”