Corbyn and Ashworth deliver call to arms over care crisis… and call out UKIP’s tricks

Jeremy Corbyn has launched a stinging condemnation of the government’s slashing of council budgets and “idiotic economics” of keeping people in hospital beds when they could be better cared for in residential homes.

Corbyn and Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, last night urged Labour supporters to come together and fight for the NHS when they spoke at a rally in London.

The Labour leader repeated his attack on the Tories for refusing to fund further investment in healthcare from central government at the same time as delivering cuts in corporation tax.

The Tories’ recklessness went beyond “mismanagement” and represented a government going “in the wrong direction”, he said. Corbyn has repeatedly called for the planned additional cut for big business to be cancelled and the money given to council’s social care budgets.

Corbyn highlighted the historic role of Aneurin Bevan, who championed “healthcare as a right”, and tried to evoke the passion of the man who became the architect of the NHS. He was introduced to the crowds in the Emmanuel Centre by Aneira Thomas – the first baby born in the NHS era, named after Bevan himself.

Speaking a day after the government confirmed the scale of the much maligned council tax precept – which sees local governments able to slightly raise their taxes in an attempt to plug the social care funding cap – Corbyn accused the Tories of failing to help poorer constituencies rather than affluent seats like those of Theresa May in Maidenhead.

He said “council tax is not a progressive tax … [I] don’t blame councils … [the Tories must] go back to the drawing board and fund local councils properly”.

“When it comes to social care, the Government is passing the buck, dodging the blame and handing the bill to those who can least afford it,” he added.

“Theresa May is loading the burden of her government’s failure to fund social care and dignity for the elderly on to councils. Raising council tax to pay for social care means the Government doesn’t have to pay a penny.”

Corbyn also demanded the government fulfils the promise they laid out in 2012, to treat mental and physical health problems equally. He urged them to provide evidence for their commitment in firm action.

Ashworth laid down a challenge to the new UKIP leader Paul Nuttall, saying: “You can bang on all you like about being a northerner and think you’re coming after Labour but I’ll tell you what, you’ll will find this northern working class lad who is now the shadow health secretary standing in your way, reminding the British you want to privatise the NHS, introduce charging and have a system that checks your purse before it checks your pulse.”