May returns to Yorkshire

PM targets Labour heartlands

WITH JUST under a month to go until voters head to the ballot box the campaigns of the two main parties are already taking shape. Theresa May was back in Yorkshire yesterday, less than two weeks after she was last here, this time addressing prospective Conservative candidates at a rally in York before heading to Leeds where she toured a factory and took questions from workers.

With the collapse of the Ukip vote, Mrs May evidently feels confident that she has shored up the right-wing vote and is now targeting Labour supporters who voted to leave the EU in last year’s referendum. Along with the tried and tested soundbites that have characterised her campaign speeches so far, Mrs May is attempting to widen her appeal to working families without making tax commitments that she feels cannot be kept.

At the same time that the Prime Minister was visiting Labour heartlands in a bid to woo voters who aren’t traditional Tory supporters, Jeremy Corbyn was launching his party’s manifesto campaign in front of activists in Manchester.

The Labour Party leader spoke passionately about his desire to break up a system he believes is rigged in favour of the wealthy and against ordinary workers. As well as taking aim at the rich and powerful, Mr Corbyn also talked of the need to ‘transform Britain’ and outlined his party’s core principles, such as decent jobs and affordable homes for all, which will have chimed with many workingclass voters.

This is unquestionably a crucial election, the outcome of which has profound ramifications for us all, which is why we need Labour to come up with a viable alternative vision of Britain to that being projected by the Conservatives. Mr Corbyn presented a glimpse of this yesterday; the challenge he now faces is to broaden his own appeal and convince the electorate that he can lead this country for the next five years.