Region is front line as leaders battle for our votes
May in Yorkshire for second time in two weeks Corbyn set to launch education plans in city today
JEREMY CORBYN will launch his education plans in Leeds today – but will face renewed questions over his approach to Brexit after a day which saw the Labour leader and Theresa May both chase votes in Yorkshire.
In an indication of the key battleground Yorkshire is, Mr Corbyn will promise higher school spending at an event in Leeds before embarking on a campaigning tour across the region after a visit yesterday within hours of the Prime Minister.
Theresa May returned to Yorkshire for the second time in less than two weeks yesterday, speaking at a rally of Conservative candidates in York before visiting a factory in Leeds. And she pledged she may well return again before polling day.
But she declined to match Labour’s commitment not to increase personal national insurance contributions, fuelling expectations the Conservative manifesto would drop the party’s 2015 tax-lock pledge.
“Our instinct is to reduce taxes on working families,” she said,
At Leeds City College today Mr Corbyn will set out education plans including restoring student grants, free meals for all primary school children and the return of the education maintenance allowance.
Labour will insist the commitments can be paid for by its plans to reverse cuts to corporation tax and levying VAT on private school fees.
Research by teaching unions has suggested proposed changes to funding could see Yorkshire schools lose more than £300m and more than 8,000 teachers made redundant.
Mr Corbyn said: “People of all ages are being held back by a lack of funding for education, and this in turn is holding back the economy by depriving industry of the untapped talent of thousands of people.
“The Conservatives have spent seven years starving schools of funding, meaning headteachers are having to send begging letters to parents to ask for money.
“They have also cut support for students and forced colleges to increase fees. It’s created a downward spiral that is bad for the people being held back and bad for the economy.”
Mr Corbyn was loudly cheered by supporters at a rally outside Morley Leisure Centre last night having hours earlier officially launched Labour’s General Election campaign in Manchester. There, the Labour leader had attempted to counter Conservative suggestions a victory for Labour could lead to efforts to remain in the European Union, declaring in his speech: “This election isn’t about Brexit itself. That issue has been settled.”
But in a later BBC interview he repeatedly avoided answering questions over whether a Labour Government would definitely take Britain out of the EU.
Mr Corbyn said there was a “clear vote” and stressed he would enter negotiations looking to achieve the party’s primary goal of tariff-free access to the single market, stressing at one point “we’ll get the good deal with Europe”.
Brexit Secretary David Davis, who is defending the East Yorkshire Haltemprice and Howden seat at the election, said: “The chaotic incoherence of Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Brexit means that the 27 other EU countries would make mincemeat of him in the negotiations.
“This morning he said he was settled on leaving the EU – this afternoon he can’t say whether he will do it.
“We simply cannot take the risk of Corbyn in Downing Street in four weeks’ time negotiating Britain’s future.”
THE TORIES will renew a pledge to hold a free vote on overturning the ban on fox hunting, Theresa May told voters in Yorkshire last night.
Speaking during a tour of a Leeds factory, the Prime Minister said she was in favour of the outlawed activity but MPs would be given the final say.
David Cameron had promised to put the divisive issue to Parliament but did not go ahead with the plan due to a lack of support.
Mrs May said: “This is a situation on which individuals will have one view or the other, either pro or against.
“As it happens, personally I have always been in favour of fox hunting, and we maintain our commitment, we have had a commitment previously as a Conservative Party, to allow a free vote.
“It would allow Parliament the opportunity to take the decision on this.”
The Prime Minister was speaking during a visit to family-owned firm Express Bi-Folding Doors in the marginal Morley and Outwood constituency where Conservative Andrea Jenkyns snatched the seat from Labour’s Ed Balls just two years ago by just 422 votes.
Mrs May took questions from workers on everything from NHS funding to the impact of Brexit, and helping young people get on the housing ladder to high childcare costs.
The Q&A was in stark contrast to Mrs May’s last trip to Leeds less than two weeks ago, after which she faced criticism for not engaging directly with ordinary voters in Harehills.
Asked why she had chosen to visit Leeds again so soon, she said: “I’ve got a very simple message. Every single vote in this election counts. The votes of people across Yorkshire will count. Every vote for me and my team will strengthen my hand in the Brexit negotiations to get the right deal for Britain from Europe.
“Every vote counts, every person counts and every community counts. So I’m very pleased to be back in Yorkshire, and you never know, you might see me back again before June 8.”
Among the questions put to Mrs May by factory staff was concern about high childcare costs affecting working families.
“Jeremy Corbyn says he will put (minimum) wages up to £10. That’s the only thing that’s going to help us out,” one worker told Mrs May.
The PM responded that “extra support” was now available for families, but acknowledged that “we have to ask ourselves whether it is having the impact we want it to have”.
She added: “This is why it’s so important to have a Government that ensures you have a good economy.
“Whatever Jeremy Corbyn says about the levels he would like to see pay being at, the plans he has got would wreck the economy. Absolutely fundamental to everything is making sure we get the health of the economy right.”
Speaking earlier in York, Mrs May also put her renewed backing behind a drive to tackle ‘fake news’. She stressed the importance of real journalism and said a free press was one of the “important pillars of our democracy”.
Personally, I have always been in favour of fox hunting. Prime Minister Theresa May addressing workers at a Leeds factory.