Jeremy Corbyn Election 2017

The candidate here in this constituency. I am a proud member of

the Jeremy Corbyn Shadow Cabinet. I'm not here to make a speech but

just to welcome you all and first will introduce your fantastic

candidate to this stage. Come on down, Tracey. Hello, everybody. I am

going to say a huge welcome. A huge welcome to Jeremy Hunt coming here

today. Clearly the weather is awful but -- a huge welcome to Jeremy Hunt

coming here today. I know you have all been really excited about

meeting him. It does rain every time you come to Middlesborough, doesn't

it? We have had a fantastic campaign here. A lot of support from

volunteers behind the campaign but I would also like to say a huge thank

you to everybody here and thank you for all of your support. We do need

to retain this seat. We have a couple of days left of the campaign,

so anybody wants to come out and be part of the Riga 's campaign, please

do. We -- and be part of this campaign. We need to have Jeremy as

our Prime Minister on Thursday. And we need to have me as your MP on

Thursday as well. We can work together to address the issues that

we are all facing. All through the Tory austerity, which was not

necessary. Please get your family out, your brothers, your sisters,

parents, grandparents, sons and daughters out on Thursday and I will

be a fantastic MP and this guy will be a fantastic Prime Minister. Thank

you very much. APPLAUSE Thank you very much, Tracey. I have

a gift for you here. It says, Tracey, win for all of us in

Middlesborough. For the many, not the few. Tracey. Before I start,

let's just pause for a second and recall what happened in London on

Saturday and what happened in Manchester. Four people from this

region died at the concert in Manchester and the whole of the city

of Manchester came together the following day. Only 18 hours later,

thousands of people when Albert Square showing their solidarity in

commemoration of those who have died. Just as in London, an awful

lot of people assembled together straightaway afterwards to show

their solidarity again with those that had been killed just because

they happen to be out on a Saturday night enjoying themselves and doing

what everybody wants to do at any time in their lives. Those people

that died must not be forgotten and we as a society must continue to

support those families fall time because they will never get over the

trauma of what happened. I thought holding the concert last night in

Manchester was an amazing thing to do and absolutely the right thing to

do because it showed that we're not going allow anybody to dictate how

we live our lives or how we go about enjoying ourselves. For those people

that imagine somehow or other these kind of terrorist attacks are going

to deter us from exercising our democratic right to have our

election to decide who our government are going to be, wrong.

We carry on. Democracy will prevail. APPLAUSE

I made a speech about this last night and about all the issues

surrounding it and so this election is, of course, about many, many

things but it is also recognising those people that have lost loved

ones and suffered as a result. If you could just pause for a few

moments silence in memory of all those who died in Manchester and at

the same time pay huge thank you to the police, the British Transport

Police, the firefighters, Ambulance Service, NHS and so many others who

did so much to try and save lives. Thank you to all of them. They stand

by us everyday of the year. We must stand them at the same time.

Thank you very much. APPLAUSE This election is now only a few

hours away, almost and I tell you what, we have been travelling the

whole country and we still have the whole country left to go round again

because we are not going to leave any area behind us. We are going to

leave no stone unturned get our message out about this election and

how people have got a choice, a real choice in this election. Either we

can go down the road over government that passers-by on the other side,

leaves communities behind, does not care about the effects of

free-market economics, does not care about the effects of cuts in local

government spend it sure, does not care about the effects of NHS cuts

-- in local government expenditure, does not care about the effects of

cuts on schools. The Labour government would do things very

differently. This book, for the many, not the few, has within it a

programme, an idea and a philosophy for how we approach lies and these

issues. I am proud of this document, proud of my Shadow Cabinet who put

it together and proud of the contribution and even Donald has

made to the team and what is in this book. Thank you Ian and Andy for the

work you do -- Andrew McDonald. I will give you an example of how we

do things differently. The Hillsborough has made steel for the

world. One company was a household name, famous all around the world,

you could see Bridges, railways built with steel from this area, the

skill that provided those things for people all over the planet and then

it was brought into public ownership with British Steel and continued

doing all of that and then privatisation followed, one company

after another brought it and then it was closed down. What did the

government do when it was under threat? What did it do when it was

about to be closed down? What intervention did they propose?

Nothing, nothing, nothing. I tell you this, Labour government of MPs

like Ian and Andy and Tracey as part of that parliamentary majority would

not pass by and let a community die and suffer because of a lack of

government intervention. This document, our manifesto, is quite

clear. We will have an industrial strategy that protect our steel

industry and does invest in high technology, sustainable jobs for the

future. We will not allow 6 million people to be earning less than the

living wage. We will not allow 1 million people to be working on zero

hours contract. We will give rights of work from day one of employment,

not having to wait. APPLAUSE And beyond that, we won't charge

people for going to unemployment tribunal to try and get justice.

APPLAUSE This will be a government that looks

at things in a very different way and through the National investment

bank, we will be investing ?500 billion across the whole of the UK

regionally based, so that no area is left behind and that industrial

strategy works for everybody. It is simply not right or fair that the

vast majority of transport infrastructure investment goes in

London and the south-east. London needs it but so does every other

region. Share it out fairly. But it is also an election about our future

and about social justice that we want. Our children only get one

childhood. They only get one chance in school. They only get that one

opportunity and APPLAUSE Up to each generation to make sure

the next generation has even better opportunities than they had. This

government remaining in office will mean what? How much longer will the

waiting lists the in our hospitals? How much more overcrowding will

there be in our classrooms? How many more centres will be closed? How

many lost opportunities with Debbie with a Tory government handing tax

relief to the biggest businesses and the wealthiest people while cutting

the services for the vast majority of the rest all over the country?

We want our children to have the best possible opportunity so we

start with preschool. We are going to give free 30 hours per beak

places in preschool for all two to four-year-olds, no rationing of it,

no means testing, one place for every child for 30 hours a week to

play together, to learn together, to grow up together in communities that

are strengthened by our children being brought together. And then you

move into primary schools. We will fund our primary schools properly

and we'll make sure that every child gets a lunch every day in school

because, do you know what, hungry children don't learn very well. When

the Tories decided to cut back on the school lunches, they then said

they'd put it into breakfasts and we got some very smart people in my

office and it took them two minutes to work out what that meant, 6.7p

per child a day. You can get an egg cup full of Rice Krispies for that.

What an insult, a disgrace. We'll make sure every child gets a decent

meal a day in school. And I recognise the huge work and stress

that teachers are under and their sense of responsibility, so many of

them helping children out by feeding them when they're hungry. That

should not be necessary and so we are going to make sure our schools

are properly funded and they're there for all of our children.

Likewise, head teachers in primary and secondary schools going through

awful stress deciding which courses to close down, which teachers to get

rid of, which teaching assistants to get rid of, all because the funding

formula's changed and money's been taken away. What is the answer of

this Government? It might work amongst the sort of circles they

live in, have a collection amongst the parents to help out with the

school budget. Sorry clam we pay taxes in order to make sure there is

education for every child. -- sorry! We pay taxes. It shouldn't be a

lottery to decide how our schools are run. I'm absolutely determined

to see how our schools are funded and to make sure our children have a

real chance. And we'll bring back the educational maintenance

allowance so that those who want to stay on and study, two to college,

do A-levels and go on to university, will have that chance. Then we've

had a long discussion and debate about what to do over college and

university education and adult education. When I was leaving school

at that age, had I wanted to two to university and got in, basically it

would have been free for me. As it was for that whole generation. I

take the view, it's not up to my generation to pull up the ladder on

the next generation. So we've taken the view, and it's an expensive one

but we believe it's the right thing to do, because it invests for us

all, is to end university and college fees and adult education

fees to give everybody an equal chance of getting the education that

they want. It cannot be right that students are leaving university 50

and 60,000 pounds in debt. It simply cannot be right. Do you know what

happens, two things happen really because of this, one is the young

person who hasn't got into university because they couldn't

afford it, hasn't got the education they wanted because it wasn't

available for them, they lose out, they're probably angry about it and

disappointed, they probably feel thwarted in life. But do you know

what, we all lose out. We've lost that nurse that, doctor, that

engineer, that surveyor, plumber, electrician. We have lost that

skilled person who can contribute to all of our lives. I see funding

education properly as funding for the future, investing in our young

people for the future and giving them the chance that they deserve.

Tory misery knows no bounds whatsoever. There is a million older

people, mainly older people waiting for social care, not getting it.

There is a crisis in almost every hospital of funding, shortage of

staff, of waiting times and waiting lists even for A departments. It

does mean that we have to recognise our National Health Service is the

most precious thing we have, the most civilised thing about our

country, but again, it's under threat from lack of funding and

privatisation. There will not be NHS privatisation under Labour, there

will be properly funding of our hospitals. And decent pay for those

in it. And there is one thing I mention at almost every meeting, a

quarter of us are going to suffer a mental health crisis in our lives.

Let's stop the stigma and nastiness about mental health conditions,

recognise it could happen to us all, reach out to support those that are

going through it and properly fund our mental Health Service, properly

fund it so this burglarly young people can get the support that they

need when they're going through difficult times -- particularly

young people can get the support they need. We need to make sure it's

an economy that works for all, decent Public Services and decent

wages. It's also about an expression of all of us about the kind of

world, community and society we want to live in. Look amongst us today. I

Know it's raining, but I can see your faces, what are we, gay,

straight, black, old, young, disabled, we are a community, we are

together! It's that sense of community that supported the miners

during the strikes all those years ago, it's that sense of community

that supported the Steelworkers, it's that sense of community that

doesn't pass by on the other side. We, as people, we as ordinary people

in our communities, see somebody in stress, we reach out and help them.

It's natural, human, it's the decent, reasonable thing to do. Do

we have a Government that's reaching out to people, or is it passing by

on the other side? Is it passing by on the other side ignoring the

poverty, ignoring the homeless, ignoring those going through stress

in life? This election is about a choice. A choice of the kind of

society and kind of world we want to live in. Us based on the values of

us, on the values of community, ours based on the the Labour traditions

of a National Health Service of education, of intervention and

industry to make sure there are jobs and services and investment for the

future, or the Tory way, the Tory way, cuts bottom, increases at the

top. We have a rainy Tuesday, better Wednesday and sunny Thursday. On

that sunny Thursday, get out there and support Tracey to get her

elected to be part of that Labour majority. But also in the run-up to

it in these last three days, let's have those conversations on the bus,

on the train, in the cafe, in the pub, anywhere you go, just ask

people, what kind of world do you want to live in? One where there's a

party in Government that glories in injustice and inequality? Or

somebody people, MPs, that see the world differently to the prism of

humanity and community and solidarity of coming together? I

know which I want, I think I know what you want, vote for Tracey on

Thursday, win in Cleveland. Thank you very much indeed!

Colleagues, friends, what a fantastic speech by the next Prime

Minister of this country. Let me just conclude today's proceedings by

simply saying, politics is about priorities. The manifesto set out by

Jeremy Corbyn is about priorities, it's about the redistribution of the

wealth. Let nobody tell you that this country is not financed. We

have got bucket loads of cash, it's how we best spend it. Jeremy's

outlined that. Get out on Thursday, get out there and vote for Tracey,

she'll be a tremendous MP and this fella will be the Prime Minister!

When you wake up on Friday morning. Good luck. Solidarity!

Before I go, thank you very much for being a great crowd, thank you for

not getting very wet, but we've got five events today, we finish off in

Gateshead tonight. We are all over the Midlands tomorrow, then on

Wednesday we are covering goodness knows how many places, but we are

covering the whole country. We are campaigning right up to the last

minute to convince people we can win this election! Thank you!

In three days, the British people will choose who they want to lead

this country through the next five years. Five years that will define

the future of our country for generations to come. I called this

election because, as we faced the start of the crucial Brexit

negotiations in just a few short days, I believed it would be

essential for the British