Corbyn seeks to show his calibre at Armouries

THERE WAS standing room only at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Saturday night as thousands of people flocked to a rally by Jeremy Corbyn.

The hall was packed to the rafters with around 2,000 people and another 1,000 unable to get in. Mr Corbyn spent half an hour talking to the crowd outside before delivering his main speech inside, where he promised to make saving the NHS his main priority as he bids to hold off a leadership challenge from Owen Smith. He had earlier held an equally packed rally in Hull.

Referring to the in-fighting that has defined his one-year tenure so far, he vowed not to involve himself “at any level with personal abuse” and the “gutter” sniping. And he urged supporters to “put forward our ideas and policies and our hope, but don’t resort to trolling and Internet abuse of anybody”.

“We are better than that and we will always be better than that,” he said. “Over the past year we have been trying to put forward a different approach and ideas. Our strength and our justice comes from those who came before us – the suffragettes who suffered so people might get the right to vote. It also comes from the cultural values we have – from great writers, great thinkers, artists and poets. So I unashamedly say this to you –in creating a fairer, better, more equal society, and developing an economy that works for us all, don’t allow ourselves to turn on each other, but also work hard to develop our ideas.”

East Leeds MP Richard Burgon, who also delivered a speech, said: “It was a fantastic event, even bigger than last time we were at the Royal Armouries last year for the leadership election. It shows that people are enthusiastic for a new kind of politics – that people don’t want to return to the failed status quo that hasn’t served the people of Leeds well.”