I’ll serve for ten years, says 68-year-old as Waspi women get early retirement

Jeremy Corbyn will seek to serve as prime minister for a decade if Labour wins the next election.

The Labour leader said he needed two terms to deliver all the policies he has promised. “I’m very fit and I’ve grown into the job,” he said. “I’ve waited all my life to see our country transformed, to bring about social justice, and I’m relishing the prospect of government.”

Mr Corbyn refused to condemn unions that have threatened to hold strikes over pub- lic sector pay even if strike ballots do not meet a 50 per cent threshold imposed by the Conservatives.

Pressed on whether he would back unions defying the law, he said: “I will be with those workers demanding a decent pay rise.”

However, deputy leader Tom Watson said Labour would not back illegal strikes, saying: “We don’t support people breaking the law. We don’t want people to break the law, we are democrats.”

Labour would also allow hundreds of thousands of women born in the 1950s to retire at 64 on a reduced state pension, rather than having to wait until 66, the party will announce today.

Changes to the state pension age mean many women who had expected to retire at 60 will have to work several years longer before receiving support.

The Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign has been pushing for a transitional “bridging pension” to help women whose retirement plans have been disrupted.