Jeremy Corbyn Election 2017

fiction, supposition and exaggeration. Then came the

broadcasters. And those comments bring us to the closing headlines

from Westminster... Thank you very much! This is the

86th rally I've addressed in this election campaign and after that,

we're going to Colwyn Bay and then south and we end up tonight in my

constituency in London. We started at 8am in Glasgow. Yesterday, we

showed Labour covering the whole country. We had been in rallies to

six places all over the country. This campaign is enthusiastic,

strong, growing and very confident. I've got a present here for Mike

Amesbury. Quite simple, Mike, no pressure, a win for all of us

tomorrow. All of us. You will see the van that sparked behind me and

you know what this election is about. Never before has there been a

clever choice in British politics about which way we go. The

re-election of a Tory Government tomorrow will mean five more years

of cuts to our NHS, five more years of increased waiting lists and

waiting times, five more years of more and more people waiting for

social care, five more years of more and more people not getting the

mental health support that they need. Five more years of austerity

and cuts to the vast majority of people of this country. Our National

Health Service, I think, is the most precious and civilised thing that we

have in this country. Health care, free at the point of use for

everybody. Something very special about that. Under these Tories, it's

been underfunded, it's been privatised, the staff are on a pay

freeze and, in reality, 14% pay cut over the past seven years. You know

the reality of it, I know the reality of it. So a Labour

Government, on day one, will suspend the sustainability and

transformation plan, look at it all again to ensure there are accident

and emergency departments covering the whole country. We will properly

fund our National Health Service, we will properly fund our social care

system and set up a national care service so that you are treated, if

you get cancer, in a hospital, you will be treated just as well if you

have dementia. At the moment, you get cancer free but not dementia

free. It's all part of our belief in a caring society. I also pull

strongly about the mental health crisis facing this country. Too many

people, particularly young people, suffer alone, that the stigma and

they suffer abuse. We want to properly fund mental health services

but also, all of us together can do something about it. We can do

something about it by supporting each other, ending the jokes, ending

the stigma, and the isolation. We can all be in a bad place.

Communities bring people together. This election is also about the

feature of our young people. There is a change in the funding formula

in our schools. Headteachers have been told, if you can't afford to

pay your teachers, can't afford to sustain your school, then either

tough or go and collect the money from your parents. Well, sorry, I

want to live in a society where, yes, we all pay our taxes, we pay

our taxes so that our children can be fairly educated in our schools.

-- properly educated in our schools. So, starting at the younger stage,

we will bring in free preschool places for all to four-year-olds

irrespective of parental income or background, so that those children

get to grow up together. Their first experiences growing up together,

that is strong. Then in the primary schools, two very big things I am

very keen on doing. The Tories brought in some limited numbers of

free school meals in the country. They have now decided to take that

away and, as you know, they are very challenged where maths is concerned,

so we did some sums on their offer of school breakfast and it turns out

to be just shy of 7p per day per child. I don't quite know what the

exact prices of rice crispy today but I think you could manage about

an a couple of rice crispies with that sort of money. It's a joke, an

insult, quite frankly. Hungry children don't learn. Hungry

children can't concentrate, hungry children don't achieve in primary

school and that goes all the way through the years, and so I am

determined, and it would cost, I know, but I am determined to do it,

and determined that we would bring in free school meals for every child

in every primary school across the country and they will eat together.

Education is about schools, it is about learning, it is about

subjects, but it is also about our children unlocking their

imagination. There is poetry in every child, art, music in every

child. And so, we will bring in people arts premium so that every

child can get to learn a musical instrument while they are in school.

And I see that as part of the kind of society and community we want and

as they go through the school years, many other things are also very

important. But if you take away, as the Tories have done, the

educational maintenance allowance, take away the maintenance grant for

those going on to university, raise university fees up to ?9,000 a year,

introduce college fees, introduce fees for adult education, what

happens? Well, you know what happens. Fewer students from middle

income or poorer families go to university, go to college to achieve

what they want to in life. Two things happen then. They lose out

because they are not following the career they wanted, not learning the

trade or profession they wanted to. They lose out and we lose out

because we don't get that nurse, that engineer, that Doctor, that

skilled person he would contribute to our society. And so I am very

keen, very keen that we will instead invest in our young people. And so,

we've costed it and it does cost and it is expensive but I think it's

absolutely the right thing to do, we will end university fees altogether.

And to reintroduce the maintenance grant, because it cannot be right,

it cannot be right that so many of our young people leave university

with debts of 40 or ?50,000 around their neck merely because they

wanted to get educated. I think we've got to invest in our future

for all of us and so this election is about the kind of society and

world we want to live in. We want an economy that works for all. I don't

want an economy where 6 million people are earning less than the

minimum wage, where 1 million ar on zero hour is contract. I want

instead a real living wage, ?10 per hour by 2020, I want an end to the

indignity of 0-hours contracts, where you wake up every morning

wondering if you've got work that day. That's not right. So, we will

be changing quite a lot of employment law. But we'll also be

investing in our economy for the future and so we will be

establishing a national investment bank. That national investment bank

will invest over ten years ?500 million across the whole of the UK,

regionally based, so that all the transport infrastructure investment

doesn't just go to London and the south-east, it goes to every part of

the country. APPLAUSE

Jeering at -- CHEERING Yes, we will be investing in new

technology and infrastructure and sustainable jobs.

As a country, we have to improve our manufacturing capacity. It is half

that of Germany and productivity is much lower. We have to do better and

provide good quality skilled jobs for the young people of the future.

Those things to me are very, very important and, people say to me,

well, this manifesto, for the many not the view, they say, well, it's

going to cost a lot of money. Well, yes, it is. I know that. But, be

very clear about this, we happily costed it. 95% of the population

will pay no more in tax, no more in National insurance, no more in VAT.

Taxation for corporations will go up for the big ones. We will be at the

same time supporting small businesses and there will be some

tax rises for those on very large incomes. I think that is the right

thing to do, because we've had seven years of austerity, seven years in

which the banking crisis of 2008, 2009 has been paid for by the low

wages in the public sector, by unemployment, by insufficient

housing, by public services being cut all over the country. This

generation is being damaged by the austerity created by the banking

crisis. APPLAUSE

CHEERING Al manifesto offers something very,

very different for the future. Our manifesto offers something that

is opportunity for the whole country, rather the change in our

whole attitude. We are putting to the British people this programme

because we believe very strongly in it and tomorrow, we've got the

chance to vote for it and elect Labour MPs like Mike and many others

to carry it through. And when we carry it through, we want to be

measured by the numbers of people that are no longer homeless, the

numbers of children that are no longer poor, the number of people

who are no longer living in poor quality, overcrowded housing, with

better chances that everybody has got. And by our environmental

sustainability, by the way in which we approach the whole of society.

And I'm very, very excited by the opportunities offered by it. And so,

the election of a Labour Government tomorrow will be the election of

Labour MPs to make sure that carried out, that's true, but you know what,

over the seven weeks of this campaign, a lot has changed. A lot

has changed because the Tory party thought it was going to be a walk in

the park. They just thought, wherein a lovely park today, enjoy your

walk, they just thought, walk in the park, what have they got to offer?

We've got something very important to offer here. The difference...

CHEERING The difference is this. A Tory

Government will continue with all the policies they are doing at the

present time, continue with the indignity of the way they treat

those with disabilities, the way in which they treat those that are

hardest up in our society. The way they walk by on the other side when

people are in desperate need. We offer something very different. If

you look around yourself in this rally here today, this fantastic

crowd here today, look at all of us. We are young, old, black, white,

men, women, gay, straight, we have problems, we have EV lives, we are

lots of different things, but you know what? Do you know what unites

us together? A common belief in humanity, a common belief in what we

can achieve together. Either you go down the Harwich Road of Tory cuts,

Tory closures, Tory privatisation, Tory inequality or you take the

other road. Those bold and brave people that lead our party in the

desperate days after the Second World War had that vision of a

National Health Service, of an inclusive society. This Labour Party

in the 21st-century has that vision, that vision that you share the

wealth, that you said the ability, you contribute to your society and

your community and you need no one, no community and no place behind.

CHEERING in a and in a positive campaign we

have fought. -- I am very proud of the positive campaign we have

fought. Those young people on top of that rock, please don't fall!

Otherwise I will get the blame if you do! We've refrain from personal

abuse because I don't believe that gets us anywhere.

CHEERING I understand because my neighbours

tell me that some people have said some very unkind things about me but

I think it all. And I ask you, all of you, in the few hours that remain

until the polls open tomorrow, think very hard. Talk to your friends,

your neighbours, everyone in the community, of the choice before us

tomorrow. To me, it's the choice of the kind of country we want to live

in. It's a choice of this or cuts, closure and privatisation.

CROWD JEERS It's between hope or fear!

CHEERING Get people to vote tomorrow so that

we elect that Government, the Government that can work the good of

all of us. Corbyn! Corbyn! Corbyn!