Jeremy Corbyn Speech Election 2017

APPLAUSE. He is a man for the many of this

country, not the few! APPLAUSE.

I went to school, I failed the 11-plus. She wants to go back to it.

And she'll take the money from the state schools and put them into the

private schools and build the grammar schools. That is not what we

believe in. That is not fair. The other one that swung it for me.

She's so vicious, she wants to (inaudible)

She wants a return to foxhunting. I'll tell you what, we stopped it

before, we'll stop it again. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

This man said, I wanted to talk about politics, I want to talk about

pensions, I want to talk about the children. That's what we're about,

that's what the future is about, a fair Britain. So the man who will

replace this woman as the Prime Minister, here we have Jeremy

Corbyn! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I come to Scarborough bearing a gift.

And it's a gift of Eric for Scarborough and Whitby.

APPLAUSE. Thank you very much, Jeremy. Hes the

manifesto that's going to put Jeremy in Parliament and be our next Prime

Minister, as was said, for the many, not the few. Thank you.

APPLAUSE. Eric, thank you and thank you all

for being here today. What a fantastic crowd. And do you know

what, this I think is the 52nd event I've done since this election

campaign began and do you know what, each rally gets bigger than the

last! APPLAUSE.

I can't imagine why that would be. It's obviously the fine weather here

in Scarborough, it's obviously the great venue, it's obviously the

great beach and the sea. I can't understand why there are not more

people swimming. But this is a constituency that we want to win.

That's why we're here. APPLAUSE.

Thank you very much. We will win it, is that agreed? Yes. Eric is the man

to do it. That is why we are here and travelling all over the country

doing these meetings and rallies, because we want to put that message

out to everybody in every single part of the country, what the

choices are in this election. T choices need to be discussed and

debated. The choices need to be put under scrutiny. I have no problem

with that. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister continues to decline going

into any debate or taking any questions from the public as a

whole. I think that is wrong in an election. An election is about

debate and is about choice. And today presented something as if it

was a U-turn which I'm interested in because yesterday I suggested they

either do a hand brake or a U-turn or something useful on social care.

So it's a kind of triumph of spin over reality when you announce

you're doing a U-turn, you read what she's actually said and it's exactly

the same as what they said last week but they're pretending it's

something different. The reality is this. There are one million people

in this country, many of them are very frail older people, many with

disabilities, learning difficulties, who need social care. There is many

waiting for it. Because it's not there, because it's inadequate, many

can't be discharged from hospital because there's nowhere for them to

go, and too often, families have to make enormous sacrifices and it's

unfortunately usually the women who end up giving up work in order to

care for people who ought to be cared for by all of us.

APPLAUSE. And so...

We are not making false promises. What we will do is immediately put

in ?2 billion to plug the funding gap in the current crisis in social

care. APPLAUSE.

So that those in desperate need do get the care they need and deserve.

That's what we will do straightaway. And then we will build our NHS, our

social care, our mental Health Services, so they're fit for the

needs of the people of this country. We've been reduced to the idea of

the corridor nurse in a hospital. We are going through a mental health

crisis in this country. A quarter of us will go through some kind of

mental health crisis during our lifetime. Being told to wait six

months before you get an appointment to an expert or somebody can give

you therapy, while 6,000 mental health nurses have lost their jobs

in the NHS. You're looking at a Government that's got its priorities

totally and completely wrong in comparison to other people in our

society. APPLAUSE.

So whilst they would rather further reduce corporate taxation, further

reduce the tax burden of the very wealthiest in our society, we have a

different approach, a totally different approach. That is not to

place that tax cost on 95% of the people of this country, but to place

that tax cost where it should always have been, on the biggest

corporations and the wealthiest within our society.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE. And then they have the that mayorty

to say, well, it's erm all the fault of the young people, it's all the

fault of the old people, it's always somebody else's fault. I'll tell you

what, we are not getting into this game of blaming generations. I'm not

blaming the young for being young, I'm not blaming the old for being

old, I'm saying to the older generation, you make a fantastic

contribution to our society. You don't deserve...

APPLAUSE. You don't deserve the injustice that

the WASPI women have been through, you don't deserve to have

uncertainty about social care or the National Health Service and you

don't deserve to be leading a lonely life because society is apparently

passing you by. What we have to develop is that inclusive approach

to our society where we do fund and guarantee pensions and social care

for those who need it. We also look at the younger generation. Is it the

fault of children now going to school that there is insufficient

money being paid by the Government towards their schools? Is it share

fault there was a banking crisis in 2008? Why should head teachers be

put through what is frankly the indignity of having to collect money

for parents in order to sustain the school budget. That is simply wrong.

Too many of our children are in super sized or oversized classes,

too many live a life of poverty and are not achieving what they should

in primary school, therefore they don't go on to achieve in secondary,

therefore they don't achieve their ambitions in life. A child who

doesn't achieve their ambitions in life does not become the doctor, the

engineer, the teacher, the nurse, whatever it is they want to achieve.

They obviously lose out individually, of course, but do you

know what, we all lose, we don't have that doctor, we don't have that

engineer, we don't have that nurse, we don't have that teacher. I see

spending on education, spending on preschool, spending on secondary,

spending on university as an investment for all of us, for all of

us. APPLAUSE.

And so it's very clear, hungry children don't learn very well and

too many of our children turn up to school hungry. Parents relying on

food banks, even people in work relying on food banks in modern

low-paid Britain. So immediately we will introduce a free school meal

for every primary school in England for every child to get that meal

together. And John and I have just come from Hull and I did say to the

people of Hull that amongst its many fine exports is John Prescott, so

thank you Hull. We have launched our cultural

manifesto there. A manifesto which is about creating a culture fund for

the whole country to support our local theatres, support our local

museums and Scarborough, you have that fantastic artistic tradition.

The theatres, the music, the entertainment and the creativity

that's there. But do you know what, in every child, there is enthusiasm.

In every child, there is creativity, there is imagination. Isn't it up to

all of us to unlock that imagination and so one proposal that I'm very

proud of, very, very proud of, is the introduction of a pupil arts

premium so that every child in every school can learn a musical

instrument. APPLAUSE.

And then, as you go on, we all want our children to achieve, get the

skills, go on to university, make the best of their lives. But, but so

many are put off by the cost, so many are put off by the debt, so we

are going to do a number of things. One, we are bringing back the

educational maintenance allowance. So people aren't deterred to stay on

in school or college. Secondly, and it's a big demand, it's a big issue

and we have discussed it very carefully and we've costed it as

well equally carefully, we want to end the tuition fees system in our

universities so that no-one is deterred from going to university.

APPLAUSE. And in areas where only 15, 20% of

the young people go to university, I want those figures to rise. I want

all of our young people who're able to and Ben from it from and want to

two to university to have that chance -- benefit from.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE. We'll also support those through the

return of the maintenance allowance at university. So, this election is

about all of those things. But it's also about the kind of economy in

society we want to live in. Six million people in modern Britain

earn less than the living wage. One million are on zero hours contracts

not knowing from day-to-day if they're working or not, waiting for

that text message, not knowing what their income will be, not knowing if

they're going to be able to pay their rent at the end of the week or

month. It's simply not right. Why can't we instead have a living wage,

a living wage that is really a living wage? That's why we put the

figure in there of ?10 per hour as a real living wage.

APPLAUSE. And also rights at work from day one

because we have employment laws in Britain that are frankly inadequate

and getting worse under this Tory Government.

So we put all these things together as an opportunity and a right, but

it's also about what we do as a country and with our economy. I'm

fed up with the imbalance of investment, fed up with the needs of

some parts of the country being left behind. When John was in Government,

he did everything he could to improve devolution, to improve

decision-making at a local level. I've talked a lot with him about

this and we are going to develop that. But, we are also going to set

up a national investment bank which will invest to all parts of the

country, will invest in the infrastructure we need, good quality

railway lines, Broadband, improved transport connections and be

prepared to invest in sustainable, high-tech cutting-edge technology to

strengthen our economy for the future.

Because it's the future of everybody that's so important important and so

there will be negotiations with the European Union. I understand that. I

understand the result of the referendum. I accept the result of

the referendum and I want a Labour Government to negotiate tariff-free

access to the European market, protection of the rights we have

achieved and protection of the EU nationals so we have a process and a

policy that sustains and defends the manufacturing industry jobs we have

all over this country that rely on trade with Europe. These are serious

times and serious issues. We are not going to threaten the

rest of the world of turning this country into some kind of tax haven

on the shores of Europe to threaten everybody else. I want an economy, a

society in Britain that doesn't glory in the levels of grotesque

inequality in Britain, but instead a government that is determined to

deal with inequality, deal with injustice, deal with poverty, deal

with all those things! And it's about the world we leave behind in

the future, how we protect our seas, how we protect our forests, how we

protect our coastline, how we sustain our natural environment on

which we live. So in this Labour manifesto, this Labour manifesto has

been put very carefully and carefully and properly costed. It

offers, I believe, something very different to those offered by other

parties. We offer a good public services, we offer a good education.

We offer a health service worthy of the name. But above all we offer the

idea that everyone of us matters. We are young, we are old, we are white,

we are black, we are gay, we are straight, we are all kinds of people

in society. CHEERING APPLAUSE

A blame culture gets you nowhere, our culture of inclusion, a culture

of respect, a culture of support means as society becomes stronger.

It was that great Labour government before I was born that gave us the

national health service after the Second World War because they

believed in the principles of inclusive sustainable society. It's

the election of 2017, the election of 2017 that says we want to develop

our country fit for the 21st-century. We don't pass by on

the other side in life, we look out for and support each other. So why

should we have a government that passes by on the other side, to the

homeless, the children who are not properly fed, the small businesses

struggling to survive, to those that want to change and improve their

lives? I am fed up with a government that can only cut expenditure on the

National Health Service, cut expenditure on social care, cut

expenditure to local government. I am fed up with that kind of

government. I think it's time to do something different. So we will be

chasing down those who think it is clever to put their money in tax

havens. We will not be handing 60 billion to the richest in our

society at the expense of the Buddhist. With Labour you will get a

government that generally works for and carers for all. I simply say

this, it is now coming up to 3:30pm. At midnight is the last moment to

register to vote. Over 2 million people, mainly young people, have

already registered since this election was announced. CHEERING

APPLAUSE So if any of you here have not voted

the lead back registered to vote, I am asking you to go straight to your

phone, get online, do it now and register to vote. Because it is your

future. And we received some criticism in some of the media I

believe, and I believe some of it is sometimes personal against good

friends of mine and even myself. But I tell you this, I haven't got time,

energy or inclination to get in the gutter with that kind... CHEERING

APPLAUSE Because our energies are totally

focused on winning this election on June eight. So I would like all of

you who are watching or listening today, joining our campaign but I

invite all of you to do all the things we always do at elections

where we deliver pamphlets, knock on doors, talk to people, that is

absolutely crucial. But what is also crucial is the atmosphere in which

the election is conducted. The voice of the future! What is also crucial

is that debate, the discussion you have in the cafe, in the pub, on the

bus or the train, anywhere you go, have that discussion. This election

is a choice, a choice between a party that glories in inequality,

that glories in tax relief at the top end, that pretends somehow or

other everything is working when everyone who is on frozen wages,

everyone is waiting at the hospital queue, everyone is waiting to get

decent housing, all of those that are waiting for that chance to make

the best of their lives, the choices there. I invite all of you to come

together, for the many, not the few! Thank you very much! CHEERING

APPLAUSE