Jeremy Corbyn declares capitalism is failing and insists June’s election shows Britain wants a socialist government
Insisting the political centre ground has dramatically shifted - despite losing the contest to Theresa May - he claimed: 'We are now the political mainstream'
JEREMY Corbyn has pushed his red revolution even further left as he declared today's capitalism is failing.
Addressing Labour’s faithful in Brighton, the 68 year-old Opposition Leader insisted June’s general election result proved his “Socialist message to inspire” is what Britain now craves.
Insisting the political centre ground has dramatically shifted - despite losing the contest to Theresa May - he claimed: “We are now the political mainstream".
The Labour boss unveiled fresh controversial policies on tough rent control and blocks on new housing developments, and pledged to enforce "a new model of economic management" if he wins power.
Mr Corbyn also used his keynote podium address to the party’s annual gathering to put it back on a ballot box war footing as he insisted the PM's minority government will fall and he is "on the threshold of power".
Unveiling two substantial new policies;
- He toughened Labour's plans for rent controls, promising to give new powers to individual cities to set caps on bills,
- He pledged local referendums for estate residents to authorise any redevelopment schemes for their community.
But there were immediate warnings yesterday that both plans would backfire on ordinary people, as even housing charities spoke out against Mr Corbyn’s updated blueprint.
Scared building firms would not dare to tender for important new schemes, and landlords would sell up instead of losing rental value, slashing available stock.
Mr Corbyn marathon 73 minute speech was met with delirium from his frenzied followers, many of them new to the Labour party.
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He entered the conference hall to a rapturous two minute standing ovation, and the Corbynista crowd sang his now trademark song 'Oh Jeremy Corbyn'.
The lifelong Socialist told them: “The capitalist system still faces a “crisis of legitimacy”.
He went on: "Today’s centre ground is certainly not where it was twenty or thirty years ago.
"A new consensus is emerging from the great economic crash and the years of austerity, when people started to find political voice for their hopes for something different and better.
"2017 may be the year when politics finally caught up with the crash of 2008.”
Weaponising the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, Mr Corbyn claimed the root of its cause was 30 years of neglect.
Before the official report on the disaster has even been written, Mr Corbyn insisted it was “a damning indictment of a whole outlook which has contempt for working class communities”.
Despite the bitter disputes over Brexit and anti-semitism that have pockmarked the last three days, Mr Corbyn insisted the Labour party is "now united", and "across all ages and all backgrounds".
He also hardened Labour’s line on the EU’s single market after Brexit, offering a new red line guarantee that his renegotiation would deliver “unimpeded access to the single market”.
And he mounted an attack on "the traditional media" for its criticism of him, singling out one newspaper - the Daily Mail - for carrying 14 pages of negative coverage of his Labour Party the day before polling day in June.
Mr Corbyn claimed: "Never have so many British trees died in vain".
But critics attacked him for making no mention of Britain’s still jumbo deficit.
He also failed to say anything at all about the Armed Forces.
Instead, the Labour boss appeared to undermine RAF pilots flying combat missions against Daesh in Syria by attacking the government’s "knee-jerk response of another bombing campaign".
Mr Corbyn's aides repeatedly refused last night to say that his new economic model would still be a capitalist one – as the Tories slapped a fresh price tag on all the promises he has made since his election manifesto launch of £312 billion.
The speech was loved by left wing union barons.
“Happy” Red Len McCluskey described Mr Corbyn as “a Prime Minister in waiting”, adding that there is now “no doubting that Jeremy has the leadership skills to take over the running of our nation”.
UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis dubbed it “a defining speech, full of hope”, and “the next election can’t come soon enough.”
But his rent control plan was slammed by housing charity Shelter.
Its CEO Polly Neate said: “Shelter supports controls that lengthen tenancies and protect families from unfair rent rises, but not old fashioned rent-setting which we think could end up harming the very people on low incomes they’re meant to help, if and when
landlords sell their properties.”
Business also reacted with dismay to Mr Corbyn’s, with the CBI warning his attacks on companies would drive away investment and kill off jobs.
The Institute of Economic Affairs dubbed Mr Corbyn's agenda as "disastrous for both the UK economy and living standards".
Its Director General Mark Littlewood said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda would be a race to the bottom for the economy, entrepreneurship and living standards in the UK.
"The rhetoric of his speech – that of state ownership, economic protectionism and rent controls – amounts to a socialist agenda that pretends the 1970s never happened."
CBI Director-General, said: “Repeated rhetoric on the sins of a handful of businesses does little to reassure anxious entrepreneurs and investors about the UK’s future as a great place to do business”.
Institute of Directors Director General Stephen Martin added: “Business leaders will be disappointed that there was not one positive thing said about the millions of companies, large and small, that form the bedrock of our economy.
“Labour may see themselves as a government in waiting, but if they are to govern, they will need to recognise that business is not the enemy.”