Jeremy Corbyn on Woman's Hour

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:00:11. > :00:17.In nine days' time my next guest Jeremy Corbyn is hoping to become

:00:18. > :00:23.this country's seventh Labour Prime Minister. In the run-up to polling

:00:24. > :00:28.day we have invited leaders hour to tell us about themselves and why we

:00:29. > :00:34.should vote for them. Good morning. The last time we met you were trying

:00:35. > :00:47.to become the Labour leader for the first time. No pink buses on this

:00:48. > :00:54.general election. You probably want to talk about childcare. Your party

:00:55. > :01:01.announced this morning about extending childcare for all to to

:01:02. > :01:07.four-year-olds. I wanted to know why you wanted to do that as you are

:01:08. > :01:13.coming on woman's hour. Isn't this an issue that affects everyone? Of

:01:14. > :01:18.course. It affects the whole community. It affects all of our

:01:19. > :01:25.children and it is there in the manifesto and set out because the

:01:26. > :01:31.moment we have a patchwork of preschool opportunities, childcare

:01:32. > :01:34.which means that some children don't get very much opportunities and some

:01:35. > :01:41.get more, what we want is a universal offer of 30 hours per

:01:42. > :01:50.week. We know from polling that the economy tops men and women's top

:01:51. > :01:57.issues. How much will it cost to provide an means tested childcare

:01:58. > :02:05.for 1.3 million children? It will cost a lot to do so, we accept that.

:02:06. > :02:10.It is cost a lot at the point I'm making is we are making universal so

:02:11. > :02:22.sure that every child gets it and sure that every child gets it and

:02:23. > :02:29.those at the moment to get free places... How much will it cost? I

:02:30. > :02:35.will give you the figure in a moment. You have announced a major

:02:36. > :02:47.policy and you don't know how much it will cost? Can I give you the

:02:48. > :02:53.exact figure in a moment? You don't know the figure. All of our

:02:54. > :03:03.manifesto is fully costed and examined. You don't know how much

:03:04. > :03:11.it's going to cost. Can we come back to that in a moment? My point is it

:03:12. > :03:13.is quite troubling because it's a policy you are launching today and

:03:14. > :03:19.you don't know how much it's going to cost. It hardly inspires the

:03:20. > :03:22.voters. What is important for the voters to understand is if we don't

:03:23. > :03:26.invest now children and we don't invest in them for the future they

:03:27. > :03:29.do less well in primary school and secondary school and less well in

:03:30. > :03:37.the future. But you don't know the cost. I want to give you an accurate

:03:38. > :03:47.figure. Why on earth are you giving free childcare is to people who can

:03:48. > :03:52.afford it? The important thing is that all children get a chance to

:03:53. > :03:59.grow up together. At the moment we have a system which separates out in

:04:00. > :04:06.the sense that a child of wealthy parents may well be able to go to a

:04:07. > :04:10.paid for preschool nursery facility but others will not get that chance

:04:11. > :04:18.because their parents can't afford it. But this is a very expensive

:04:19. > :04:25.policy. Would you like to hear how much it's going to cost? It's more

:04:26. > :04:29.important to collect the money back through taxation on the principle of

:04:30. > :04:37.Universalism. The same applies with the NHS and mainstream education. It

:04:38. > :04:42.is a staggering costs. Your Shadow Education Secretary says its ?2.7

:04:43. > :04:47.billion and banned for pointed alien with half a billion to reverse the

:04:48. > :04:55.cats. Does that sound right? It does. The importance of restoring

:04:56. > :05:02.shorts start is that this Conservative government have close a

:05:03. > :05:07.lot of them down. It has damaged the chances of a lot of children. We

:05:08. > :05:11.have to be in a situation where we trust you with our money and you

:05:12. > :05:14.didn't know those figures. The next nine days are about convincing

:05:15. > :05:23.people you are at to the biggest job in the land. You have never held a

:05:24. > :05:27.ministerial role, a Shadow Cabinet role or Chile select committee and

:05:28. > :05:33.before politics you never ran a big organisation. Harry Fletcher who was

:05:34. > :05:36.a former key adviser left your campaign and said he struggled to

:05:37. > :05:41.cope with the demands of front line politics, your office is ruled by

:05:42. > :05:45.chaos, there is no diary, there are thousands of unopened e-mails and

:05:46. > :05:54.your team is frightened of making decisions. Harry Fletcher was never

:05:55. > :06:01.an adviser. He was a volunteer in my campaign. I didn't expect you not

:06:02. > :06:08.know how much your policy was going to cost. We have manifesto here

:06:09. > :06:11.which is about challenging the direction in which this country has

:06:12. > :06:16.gone in that we have now had seven years of continuous cuts in public

:06:17. > :06:22.expenditure which is hit local government the hardest but also head

:06:23. > :06:27.health and education as well. We have also a process by which

:06:28. > :06:33.corporation tax is being reduced continuously and narrowed down to

:06:34. > :06:38.18%. And we have underfunded public services and the growing gap seen

:06:39. > :06:42.the richest and the poorest. What we are suggesting is that we raise

:06:43. > :06:50.corporation tax to a lower level than it was in 2010 in order to pay

:06:51. > :07:01.for the re-funding of health and social care. I am happy you brought

:07:02. > :07:07.up social care. But you didn't know the figures are key bit of policy

:07:08. > :07:14.and you don't have the experience. My office is not run chaotically. We

:07:15. > :07:19.were put together in two weeks because they and -- election is

:07:20. > :07:22.unexpected. We have an economic strategy which is fundamentally

:07:23. > :07:27.about investment in our economy for the future. Another big battle

:07:28. > :07:33.ground is social care. You plan to increase spending on social care and

:07:34. > :07:38.introduce a national care service but you have not set out again how

:07:39. > :07:42.you would find it. You talk of cross-party consensus on says,

:07:43. > :07:47.employer contributions or a new social care levy but that is quite a

:07:48. > :07:53.range of suggestions. How would you pay for your social care? We would

:07:54. > :08:00.put into billion per year straightaway to cover the funding

:08:01. > :08:06.gap at the moment. We would not put a figure on it of taking away

:08:07. > :08:12.property value. We would fund that now and then come to an agreement on

:08:13. > :08:17.how we do long-term funding of social care. The principle has to be

:08:18. > :08:22.that we will put the money in to deal with the crisis and then make

:08:23. > :08:27.sure we have a principal long-term strategy to ensure the social care

:08:28. > :08:32.is universally available. At the moment it's a very patchy system.

:08:33. > :08:45.Some local authorities do it out of another's. Some people have to give

:08:46. > :08:50.up work. So it's not costed? 2 billion per year would go in now in

:08:51. > :08:53.order to cover the immediate crisis. They have been huge cuts made in

:08:54. > :08:58.social care in the last seven years and that has resulted in these

:08:59. > :09:01.million people and it impacts on health expenditure because people

:09:02. > :09:06.are stuck in hospital when they should leave. Let's move to another

:09:07. > :09:11.area of financial concern: the campaign to tackle inequalities in

:09:12. > :09:20.the stench -- state pension for women born in the 50s. You have said

:09:21. > :09:26.you would give pension credits to help some of these women. In your

:09:27. > :09:29.manifesto it says labour is exploring options for further

:09:30. > :09:35.transitional protections. Why not make a manifesto commits and to

:09:36. > :09:39.compensate these women and spell out what transitional protection you are

:09:40. > :09:43.talking about? We were put in a now to ensure they get pension and

:09:44. > :09:48.credit which would go towards compensating what they have

:09:49. > :09:52.suffered. Then we would make sure they don't lose out because of the

:09:53. > :09:58.way in which the pension age was raised without them expecting it to

:09:59. > :10:02.planning for it. This cohort of women have suffered very badly. Why

:10:03. > :10:10.not make that commitment to compensate? We said we would put

:10:11. > :10:17.pension credit in now and then we would love that way of them for it.

:10:18. > :10:25.There is a manifesto commitment to make sure they don't lose out. I

:10:26. > :10:28.wish we had had more time to get further discussions on it but the

:10:29. > :10:35.principle is whilst they have been badly treated we believe they should

:10:36. > :10:41.be compensated. Let's go to another area of financial concern, the

:10:42. > :10:47.definitive issue of this election, Brexit. Negotiating our elected from

:10:48. > :10:53.the EU. Many people may struggle to differentiate between Labour's

:10:54. > :11:00.position and the Conservatives. Theresa May has said clearly she

:11:01. > :11:05.will walk away with no deal. Would you leave those negotiations with no

:11:06. > :11:12.deal? It seems a strange way to start negotiations. There is little

:11:13. > :11:16.incentive on the other side to come to agreement if you're going to walk

:11:17. > :11:21.off. We have to approach the Brexit negotiations on a number of

:11:22. > :11:27.principles. We have to accept the leaving the EU. Next, guaranteeing

:11:28. > :11:37.EU nationals rights of permanent residence in Britain. They need that

:11:38. > :11:43.certainty. The key part is tariff free trade access to the European

:11:44. > :11:53.market. But would you be willing to walk away with no deal? We will

:11:54. > :11:58.negotiate to get a deal. You don't walk away, you stay at the table to

:11:59. > :12:03.get a deal. If those negotiating now we will do a deal at any cost you

:12:04. > :12:10.are going in on the back foot. It's the other way round, you are saying

:12:11. > :12:19.you want to continue a good trading relationship with Europe. You need

:12:20. > :12:24.to make sure those manufacturing jobs have and you need to make sure

:12:25. > :12:32.European nationals have guaranteed rights. So you are willing to do a

:12:33. > :12:34.deal at any cost? We are not threatening to set this country up

:12:35. > :12:43.as a local Brit tax saving on the shores of Europe. There has to be an

:12:44. > :12:47.economic relationship with Europe. So you are saying there has to be a

:12:48. > :12:51.deal. There has to be in agreement whoever is in government. The

:12:52. > :12:58.principle behind it is tariff free access in order to defend what is

:12:59. > :13:06.here and to maintain the links such as university education and health

:13:07. > :13:12.links. What is your cash out point? Is it 100 billion? We are going to

:13:13. > :13:18.the negotiating table in Brussels with a mandate to say two things,

:13:19. > :13:24.European Union and that we have European Union and that we have

:13:25. > :13:29.fought an election on the basis that we want to achieve a trade agreement

:13:30. > :13:34.with the European Union. That is a good sensible starting point. It's

:13:35. > :13:39.also in the interest of countries in Europe that they have that trade

:13:40. > :13:45.agreement. I am not going to give a cash out point. Labour has pledged

:13:46. > :13:48.to renew Trident. Your lack of a personal commitment to Trident is a

:13:49. > :14:01.tricky one to voters. Who do they believe? The manifesto is a product

:14:02. > :14:06.of the policies of the Labour Party. The Labour Party has debated this

:14:07. > :14:12.issue for a long time. I did vote against the renewal of Trident and I

:14:13. > :14:16.was not successful in that and the party has come to that conclusion.

:14:17. > :14:23.Where we are agreed and what I will Where we are agreed and what I will

:14:24. > :14:26.give a huge priority to is recognising that any nuclear weapons

:14:27. > :14:32.ever used anywhere is catastrophic for the entire planet. I have spent

:14:33. > :14:37.my life working with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to bring

:14:38. > :14:40.back a nuclear free world and I will put as much effort as I can to bring

:14:41. > :14:49.about the reality of a nuclear free world. You are still its vice

:14:50. > :14:59.president according to its website. I am a member of CND, I am not a

:15:00. > :15:10.vice president. I resigned from those positions when I became leader

:15:11. > :15:16.of the party. Can people trust you on that? I think people will

:15:17. > :15:23.recognise that this manifesto has been produced by a party membership

:15:24. > :15:28.which has put forward a transformational set of policies for

:15:29. > :15:43.Britain. I am proud to lead the party. I am proud to accept the

:15:44. > :15:46.democracy of the Labour Party. The point is to be successful in

:15:47. > :15:53.politics you have to bring people together. It is well known that

:15:54. > :16:01.Labour Party has still never elected a woman. Let me ask you this, what

:16:02. > :16:12.single policy do you consider vital to introduce to improve the lives of

:16:13. > :16:21.women? Big investment in early years education and our education strategy

:16:22. > :16:28.in schools. Linking girls to educational opportunities and beyond

:16:29. > :16:35.that it's about encouraging girls to go into science and engineering as

:16:36. > :16:41.well as all the other subjects. My mother was a science teacher and she

:16:42. > :16:45.taught me about the importance of girls in doing engineering and

:16:46. > :16:50.physics and science subjects. It is saying to girls you can do anything

:16:51. > :16:57.and getting that message across but it's also about how we deal with

:16:58. > :17:01.structures and gender inequality and the bug appointments and I have made

:17:02. > :17:04.sure the Shadow Cabinet I've appointed is more than half of

:17:05. > :17:25.female members in it. Some of said you had to do more to

:17:26. > :17:31.stop the abuse coming their way and accuse you of inadequate response.

:17:32. > :17:36.Angela Eagle said you contributed to a permissive environment for abusive

:17:37. > :17:42.behaviour to flourish. Whiting you do more? I did everything I do

:17:43. > :17:46.everything I possibly can. Do of any sort is absolutely unacceptable. I

:17:47. > :17:59.met Angela and all of the women Labour MPs to discuss this issue and

:18:00. > :18:02.pointed out what our policies were. You can't say they didn't do it in

:18:03. > :18:07.your name. They were your supporters. They did not do it in

:18:08. > :18:14.mining because it was made very clear that any degree of abuse is

:18:15. > :18:19.unacceptable. I got in touch with anyone who was involved in the

:18:20. > :18:24.campaigning work to say this is completely unacceptable and

:18:25. > :18:28.completely wrong and it is not within the rules of the Labour

:18:29. > :18:31.Party. Nine days away from finding out if you get the top job, I

:18:32. > :18:42.presume you will resign as leader if you lose?