Jeremy Corbyn, newly elected leader of the UK's Labour Party, yesterday declared he was "unapologetic" about leading a leftward policy shift, but insisted the move was in tune with the British public.
In his first speech as leader to the party’s annual conference, the hardline socialist sought to smooth over some of the controversies of his first two weeks in office. He has been criticised for appointing a hard-left economy spokesman, refusing to sing the national anthem at a second World War commemoration and appearing lukewarm over the UK’s EU membership.
Mr Corbyn said Labour’s central purposes would be challenging inequality and fighting the government’s spending cuts. He said he was “unapologetic” about his plans to reform the economy and to protect workers’ rights.
“Now is the time for capital investment in our infrastructure,” he said. He promised a “kinder politics”, saying his approach was in line with “majority British values”.
Left-wing views
Mr Corbyn referred to Conservative claims that his radical left-wing views and pacifist outlook meant he was a threat to economic security and national security. “How dare those people talk about security for families and people in Britain,” he said, citing families affected by cuts to the welfare state under David Cameron’s government.
But the Labour leader repeated his opposition to the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent, due to be decided next year. He insisted the race for the party leadership had given him a mandate on the issue, despite support for Trident renewal among many leading Labour figures.
“I don’t believe £100 billion spent on nuclear weapons is the right way forward,” he said.
Instead, he proposed the money spent on Trident should be diverted to other industries to sustain the jobs and skills of people employed by defence companies.
He said "it did not help our national security" when Britain went to war in Iraq in 2003 on "a false prospectus".
The only way to protect British people at home and abroad was to resolve conflict. “It is unavoidable if we want real security,” he said.
He repeated his challenge to David Cameron over Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, a protester who faces beheading and crucifixion in Saudi Arabia for a crime he allegedly committed aged 17.
Excessive payments
Mr Corbyn attacked global companies for rewarding executives with excessive payments while offering low pay to millions of workers. His values of “fair play for all, solidarity and not walking by on the other side of the street” were universal values, he said.
“It is this sense of fair play, these shared majority British values, that are the fundamental reason I love this country and its people.”
He said there was no “security” for people forced to move from one rented home to another or suffering from cuts to social care or unable to buy a home.
He called the housing shortage the Tories’ biggest failure, adding: “There is no answer at all to this housing crisis that does not start with a new, active [social] housing programme.”
He attacked the Tories for handing an inheritance tax cut to 60,000 of the best-off people in Britain. It was an “absurd lie” that the Conservatives were on the side of the low-paid, he said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015