CORBYN’S HORROR SHOW cont.

As if losing his deputy wasn’t bad enough, Labour campaign hit by FOUR body blows And Chancellor to put the boot into ‘fantasy’ politics that would cripple Britain’s economy

JEREMY Corbyn suffered a succession of hammer blows on the first day of his election campaign yesterday.

As his deputy Tom Watson shocked Westminster by quitting politics, critics claimed Labour’s pro-union laws would cost the country £9.5billion a year in lost productivity, and the party’s anti-wealth policies would lead to an exodus of the richest people.

Mr Corbyn was also criticised after it emerged he shared a platform with a wife campaigning for her jailed IRA husband to be released, and diplomats said they feared a Labour government would risk national security because our allies would be reluctant to share information with a PM they didn’t trust.

It came as Sajid Javid branded Mr Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell the ‘anti-vaxxers of economic policy’ as he warns Labour would ‘make this country sick again’.

The Chancellor will use a speech in Manchester to savage Labour’s ‘fantasy’ approach. But he will warn that Britain needs to take the economic threat of Labour deadly seriously, saying: ‘It’s easy to poke fun at Comrade Corbyn and his fantasy economics. But this is a close election and I am taking nothing for granted.’

‘We can’t let Labour turn back the clock’

In Liverpool, Mr McDonnell will set out his latest eye-watering proposals including a new £150billion spending spree and a plan to relocate large parts of the Treasury from London to the North of England.

Mr Javid was blocked from publishing an official Treasury analysis of Labour’s spendthrift plans this week after Mr McDonnell lodged a complaint with Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill. But sources said Treasury officials had calculated that Labour’s plans would cost the country ‘hundreds of billions of pounds’.

The Chancellor will today warn that Labour would take Britain back to an economic dark age. Likening the party’s leaders to dangerous crank doctors, he will say: ‘Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are like the anti-vaxxers of economic policy. Not only did they reject the treatment needed to heal our economy and get the deficit down by four-fifths, they now want to take every step imaginable to make the country sick and unhealthy again.

‘There are serious consequences to these fantasy economics.’

Mr Javid is expected to set out a new set of ‘fiscal rules’ ensuring that Tory spending plans would be handled in a ‘responsible’ way. Sources said the rules would ensure that spending and borrowing are kept ‘under control’.

The Chancellor will warn today that Labour’s plans would bankrupt Britain, saying: ‘After a decade of recovery, of difficult decisions, we can’t let Labour turn back the clock, let spending get out of control and make hardworking families pay the price.

‘We won’t let Labour off the hook like last time. Look to the lessons of history – they’ll ruin our finances, raise your taxes and saddle the next generation with debt. Every single Labour government has left our country’s economy in a mess.’

Ministers believe the Tories’ determination to maintain economic prudence will create ‘clear blue water’ with Labour.

Addressing a rally in Birmingham last night, Boris Johnson claimed Labour was planning ‘a huge list of tax rises’. The PM added: ‘The Labour Party always runs out of other people’s money. That is what happens and it will happen again.’