Jeremy Corbyn says 'mainstream' Labour is now on the brink of power

Joe Murphy @JoeMurphyLondon27 September 2017
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Jeremy Corbyn today promised “we will not let you down” as he claimed his party was on the brink of power.

Labour’s leader declared that Labour was now the “political mainstream” of politics, shaping a new centre ground.

But he also warned his untested team they must show “competence” to win the trust of voters.

He basked in applause from delegates as he made the keynote speech at the end of the Brighton conference.

It contained a battery of policies to address the housing crisis - including a pledge to stop “social cleansing” during inner city regeneration schemes.

He also told big employers they would be monitored for equal pay under Labour.

And he boasted that Labour’s manifesto was an “antidote to despair” that had won new supporters who had previously stopped bothering to vote.

The party conference ended in a carnival atmosphere despite June’s election defeat, with delegates convinced their gains pointed to a coming victory.

“We know we are campaign-ready; we must be government-ready too,” Mr Corbyn cautioned the packed hall. “Our aspirations matched by our competence.”

Carnival atmosphere: Jeremy Corbyn at Labour conference
Jeremy Selwyn

And ending a week marred by rows over anti-Semitism and the Royals, Mr Corbyn said they had a heavy “responsibility” to reassure people beyond the Labour tribe.

“This is our responsibility now, conference,” he said. “We have left the status quo behind but we must make the change we seek credible and effective.”

Ahead of Mr Corbyn’s arrival on stage, the platform was filled with Labour’s newest MPs who won their seats in the 2017 general election.

An LGBT choir, Rainbow Chorus, warmed up the hall with Labi Siffre’s Something Inside So Strong and then led the crowd in a Mexican wave to hits, including Moving On Up, by MPeople and, bizarrely, Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do, whose opening line is “I don’t like you little games”.

Many delegates wore Corbyn themes t-shirts and scarves. Several members of the shadow cabinet donned red jackets.

The crowd began chanting “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” and cheering wildly as he finally walked to the stage - and kept going despite appeals for order.

Mr Corbyn beamed and lapped up the attention.

His assured performance was unrecognisable from his hesitant speeches of last year and the year before.

However the speech was heavier on familiar rhetoric than new policy announcements.

He mocked Theresa May’s election claim that she would form a “strong and stable” government. “They’re certainly not strong - and they’re definitely not stable,” he jibed.

Then he boasted that Labour’s gains had stopped her “dementia tax” and grammars along with a Tory manifesto on foxhunting.

He even joined the crowd singing Happy Birthday to Diane Abbott, whom he said had overcome unbelievable racial abuse in her political career.

“We are now the political mainstream,” he said, but also said the party needed to “build a still broader consensus” around its ideals.

He said the party stood for “both compassion and collective aspiration”.

“This is the real centre of gravity of British politics. And Labour has already started to shape and occupy that centre ground.”

Labour was offering policies that “most people in our country actually want, not what they’re told they should want”, he said.

He said the election showed the party could reawaken voters. “Many hadn’t voted before or not for years past, but they put their faith in our party. We offered an antidote to apathy and despair.”

The big policy announcements were on housing - and he said the Grenfell tragedy should herald a new era in which tenants are “listened to”.

Unveiling a policy to give estate residents a veto over regeneration schemes that affect them, he said: “After Grenfell, we must think again about what are called regeneration schemes.

“Regeneration is a much abused word too often what it really means is forced gentrification and social cleansing as private developers move in and tenants and leaseholders are moved out.”

In future councils will have to guarantee people who live on an estate a home on the same site and on the same terms as before, he said.

“No social cleansing. No jacking up rents. No exorbitant ground rents,” pledged the Labour leader.

In addition, he said tenants would get a right of veto through a vote on the redevelopment scheme.

“Real regeneration, yes but for the many not the few,” he said.

In addition he signalled new duties on private landlords, saying: “We will insist that every home is fit for human habitation.

“And we will control rents. When the younger generation’s housing costs are three times more than those of their grandparents, that is not sustainable.”

Land-squatting developers would be hit with a tax on undeveloped land.

Concluding his speech, Mr Corbyn said: “Let everyone understand, we will not let you down

“Because we listen to you. Because we believe in you.

“Labour can and will deliver a Britain for the many not just the few.”

Close ally Angela Rayner told Sky News that Mr Corbyn has shown he is “prime minister material” and would be able to “run Britain and run the economy better than Theresa May”.

But a poll in The Times found that voters prefer Mrs May as PM by a margin of 37% to 29% over Mr Corbyn, even while Labour stretches its lead over the Tories to four points, on 43% to 39%.

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