Hitting the rich will pay for a fairer UK

JEREMY Corbyn vows to cut bosses’ pay if he wins the General Election and do £192billion of Government deals with firms which agree to curb executive pay to about £350,000.

Labour’s election manifesto, being published next month, will also pledge to wipe out £3billion of school debt caused by Tory cuts.

He also wants affordable homes to be among the million that Labour aim to build by 2020, costing £150,000 at most and within reach of average earner couples on £27,000 each.

Mr Corbyn will target the rich to pay for his spending plans. He said: “We want fairness and justice and those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden. Our taxation system doesn’t do that.

“Our proposals are all funded by changes in taxation at the top end not the bottom end.” That, says Mr Corbyn, means no tax rises on those on lower and middle incomes.

But the 11 per cent cut in corporation tax big firms are due by 2020 would be under threat.

Today’s ComRes poll puts Labour a distant second behind the Tories but Mr Corbyn says he can still win.

He said: “When you get the message directly out to people on the doorsteps and in the streets you get a real hearing.” He said: “Inequality doesn’t have to be like this. Schools don’t have to be underfunded and rely on parental contributions and hospitals need proper funds as do social care and mental health.

“I want a society which enriches us all not enriches the few.”

Mr Corbyn said bosses of firms hired by Whitehall will have to pay themselves no more than 20 times the earnings or their lowest paid workers or lose government business. Firms will also be required to pay their suppliers on time.

Councils spend £69billion of the public sector total with private firms and Mr Corbyn would like to see all contracts include clauses ensuring union recognition and one apprentice hired for every eight craftsmen.

Mr Corbyn said: “Are we going to continue to be grotesquely unequal, underfund our public services, underpay our workers and underinvest in our infrastructure?”

He said he likes Theresa May personally but thinks she had planned calling an Election a month ago.

If Mr Corbyn becomes PM on June 8 this is what he will say on June 9. “You’ve put an enormous trust in us to deliver an economy which works for all, to deliver decent housing, to deliver a health service and deliver pensioner justice. We will deliver.”