Labour will demand Britain seizes power from Brussels to boost out economy – Corbyn’s speech to the Fabians

This is the full text of the keynote speech delivered by Jeremy Corbyn at the Fabian’s new year conference

Firstly may I wish you all a Happy New Year.

It’s a year in which the shadow of the last will loom large.

In a week’s time the President-Elect will become Donald Trump the 45th President of the United States.

And this Government without a plan will move to invoke Article 50, to start what risks being a shambolic Brexit that protects the interests of bankers but does nothing for our people and communities.

Of course last year’s global political earthquake didn’t just come out of the blue.

There are many of us who had felt the tremors growing for years.

The people who run Britain have been taking our country for a ride.

They’ve stitched up our political system to protect the powerful.

They’ve put the country at risk by taking us into disastrous foreign wars.

They’ve rigged the economy and business rules to line the pockets of their friends.

They’ve slashed taxes on the richest – another £70 billion by 2022 – and cut pay and vital services for the rest.

They’ve sold off our country’s assets and handed over public services to be milked by tax dodgers.

They’ve piled up debt while failing to invest in the jobs and industries of the future.

The truth is the system simply doesn’t work for most people.

For a generation of young people job security means nothing. It’s a relic of a distant age. They work through a temp agency or on a zero hours contract, not knowing whether they’re working from one day to the next or what they’re earning from one week to the next.

The stress, insecurity and misery this brings with it, who benefits exactly? Only those employers who can squeeze a bit more profit out of workers with fewer hours, lower pay and fewer rights.

And pay has been driven down. Six million people in our country don’t earn a living wage. The number of people in work and in poverty is at a record high.

We are not a poor country. Together we create immense wealth but the rules of today’s race-to-the-bottom jobs market rig the system for the few, while millions of the rest of us carry the can.

None of that delivers a good deal for consumers either because those same workers get fleeced as consumers too, simply for wanting a home or trying to get to work.

Hundreds of thousands of people live in a house which was built by the council but which is now owned by a private landlord who makes a fortune from housing benefit, charging rents higher than the council ever charged.

People are fed up with getting ever higher energy bills from energy companies that raked in record profits again and handed out inflation-busting pay deals to their pocket-stuffing executives but nothing of the kind to their regular staff.

People are fed up with waiting on understaffed platforms for trains that are suddenly cancelled; trains run by private companies that are now receiving far more public subsidy than British Rail ever did.

And yes I know this might upset the Daily Telegraph and Tory Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, but I would rather stand on a picket line for a safely staffed railway than stand with the fat cat rail bosses charging rail passengers an arm and a leg. The most expensive fares in Europe for a second rate service.

Labour under my leadership stands for a complete break with this rigged system.

We will hand back wealth and control to people and communities.

We will put the public back into our economy and break the grip of vested interests.

We will shrink the gap in income and wealth and build a more equal society.

We will make sure the corporations and the richest pay their fair share of taxes.

We will end the race to the bottom in the jobs market and guarantee education and employment rights for all.

We will build the homes people need and invest in a 21st century economy that leaves nobody and no community behind.

Right now, they’ve rigged the rules to suit themselves. The super-rich few have benefited from tax break after tax break under this government.

Cuts to capital gains tax, to inheritance tax, ditching the 50p rate, slashing corporation tax and reducing the levy on the banks.

But remember they couldn’t find a penny for the NHS or social care in their Autumn Statement.

That’s why week after week at Prime Minister’s questions I’ve been challenging Theresa May over the crisis in the NHS and social care.

The thousands waiting more than four hours at A&E, the million elderly people not getting social care and the young people with mental health problems who don’t get the support and care they need.

People across this country feel the system is rigged against them, that it’s just not right.

Whether it’s the struggling young professional saddled with thousands in debt from university who would have to save up to 30 years to get a deposit for a mortgage on a flat.

Or the battling small business with a full order book but an empty bank account because their big business customers won’t pay on time and the bank won’t give them a bridging loan, never mind a capital loan to expand.

Or the scared 75 year-old grandmother stuck in a hospital bed desperately wanting to be looked after at home but with no care support to help her out.

They all know the rules of the game are rigged against them.

The Conservatives promised to fix the roof while the sun was shining.

Instead they’ve carried on fixing the system for an elite few at the top.

Power, wealth and opportunity lies in the hands of the privileged few, not the many.

The Prime Minister may say she wants a ‘shared society’ but the Tories have spectacularly failed even to begin to share the wealth fairly across society or across our nations and regions.

So is it really a surprise that when people were offered the chance to ‘make their country great again’ or to ‘take back control’ that many voted for it?

For some, it was their first chance to exercise a bit of real power and say what they thought about a system stacked against them.

In the US, the Democratic favourite lost the presidency to a reality TV star.

In the UK, a Prime Minister and his Chancellor were seen off by a slogan on a bus.

But the Leave and Trump campaigns succeeded because they both recognised the system was broken and the people weren’t being listened to.

Recognising that your car won’t start, however, is one thing, knowing how to fix it is another.

Labour is going to call time on this rigged system.

Because power is in the wrong hands.

It is not enough to bring back powers from faceless bureaucrats in Brussels when the rules are rigged for a moneyed class, defended to the hilt by Downing Street.

As well as taking on those who profit from this rigged system we also need to take power away from Downing Street and hand it to every city street, town avenue and country lane across the country.

The Tories used to talk about a Northern Powerhouse but how can you have a powerhouse when you’re cutting council budgets by 40%?

That’s because the Conservatives, under Cameron, Osborne and now May haven’t devolved power, they’ve devolved austerity.

Nothing makes this cowardice clearer than the social care crisis made in Downing Street, cutting £4.6 billion in social care funding over the last Parliament.

They’ve now told councils to fill the gap by raising council tax but that won’t even meet 3 percent of what councils are already spending on social care for the elderly.

They’re passing the buck to the councils, shifting the blame and handing you the bill.

Tory misrule has not only created a postcode lottery in health but in jobs and economic prosperity as well.

Since 2010, only 2% of new jobs have been created in the North East.

By 2021, the amount spent every year per person on transport infrastructure will reach £1,900 in London. In the North East it will be less than £300.

And you’ve only to look to our second chamber, the House of Lords to see how skewed it is to the South. Nearly half of all peers making decisions for our nations and regions are based in London and the South East. Just 5 percent are from the North West.

The way this country is run is lop-sided, unbalanced and unfair.

Power, wealth and opportunity isn’t shared across the country – or anything like it, it’s concentrated in and around our capital.

And that’s a big part of why many people feel politics is broken.

For too long governments have only thought about the short-term.

Brexit means we must plan for the long-term.

There’s a compelling need to use our exit from the EU to rebalance Britain and provide a vision for what the country could be.

The Fabians were famous for their belief that there should be a “slow, gradual transition and expansion of socialism”. I would suggest that today’s demands and challenges require us to go a little bit faster!

Britain can be better off after leaving the EU but it’s far from inevitable and it won’t happen with a government that stands by while wages are driven down, while industry declines and while public services are sent into meltdown.

Labour will push to maintain full access to the European single market to protect living standards and jobs.

But we will also press to repatriate powers from Brussels for the British Government to develop a genuine industrial and regional strategy, essential to invest in our economy so that no community is left behind.

But just as no community should be left behind, no community should be scapegoated either. The shocking rise in racist attacks post-Brexit shames us all.

As politicians we have a responsibility to cool our language. Words have consequences and the language used by some in the referendum campaign gave a green light to hatred.

Migrants come here to work; tens of thousands of them keep our National Health Service going.

When it comes to immigration, we’ll do what is best for the economy and that includes stamping out the exploitation of migrant workers, exploited by some employers to drive down terms and conditions for everyone.

To deliver a Britain after Brexit that works for everyone, we need to push power and resources to our councils and regions.

Local authorities were once at the vanguard of innovation; they had to be. As this country slowly democratised it was local government that helped civilise it.

From the 19th century onwards, local authorities pioneered welfare provision to reduce poverty. They rid their towns of slum housing, built new homes, parks, hospitals, museums and libraries, swimming pools and playing fields. They reduced inequality and improved the lives of many.

In the face of a government that cuts and neglects, Labour councils today are finding that pioneering spirit once again.

Brent Council became the first in the country to offer business rates discounts as an incentive for local firms to pay the ‘living wage’, boosting living standards for low paid workers.

Hull City Council not only successfully campaigned to get Siemens to build Greenport to develop a new generation of wind turbines and create 1,000 local jobs. They also won the chance to become the new UK City of Culture, delivering £30m of increased investment.

And Nottingham City Council became the first authority to set up its own energy supply company, to challenge the ‘Big Six’ by offering low cost energy, Literally giving power to the people!

In a post-Brexit Britain it is vital that Government gives local authorities more powers and resources to innovate and generate prosperity and reduce inequality at home.

And Labour wants to see a further devolution of powers.

My colleague Jon Trickett – a proud Yorkshireman if ever there was one – talked yesterday about the need for more powers for the North of England. We both believe that a people’s convention on how a federal Britain could work is something that is overdue.

Hopefully the Fabians will be a trailblazer for this devolution revolution by holding its next New Year’s Conference somewhere outside North London.

Maybe I could write a pamphlet for you, Andrew?

But seriously, Brexit demands we face these issues afresh and develop the long-term vision to build a fairer, more just Britain.

In a few weeks’ time, I will be holding a summit with European socialist leaders. It may surprise some of you that I personally invited the President and Director General of the CBI to attend.

It may surprise you even more that they agreed to attend!

But many businesspeople and entrepreneurs are increasingly realising that Labour has something to say to them as well. That the rigged system and a Government that stands by is letting them down too.

The CBI has continually warned against the cliff edge of a chaotic Brexit. Sadly, the Government’s Brexiteers seem to be following the advice of lemmings!

So it is Labour that’s fighting for tariff-free access to the single market for firms to trade with our biggest trading partners in the interests of businesses, workers and our economy.

But the CBI and Labour also have common ground on other issues; from rebalancing growth and investment across the U, to fast-tracking infrastructure spending, to building the crucial transport and digital links to maximize our country’s potential.

We also intend to stand shoulder to shoulder with small businesses around the country as they’re forced to pay up to a 50% increase in their business rates.
When I addressed the CBI annual conference I told them we believe in Government intervention for the common good.

That’s why we will introduce a National Investment Bank with regional banks to support investment-led growth and provide the patient finance businesses need across the country.

We will use public intervention to unleash the creativity and potential of entrepreneurial Britain by training the high-skilled people they need.

I was honest with the CBI. I explained it will mean increasing corporation tax to pay for university grants and a new education maintenance allowance so that no talent is left behind due to inability to pay or fear of debt.

Many workers in Britain have not had a pay rise for years.

As I highlighted earlier this week, the average pay of a FTSE 100 chief executive has rocketed to £5 million, more than 130 times more than the average UK worker.

That’s not only grossly unfair; it also underlines a serious economic problem.

Britain needs the many to have better pay, not least because that means more money to spend with businesses, which grows the economy. Growth means more tax receipts for the exchequer, which means more money for our NHS.

People know that the wealth isn’t trickling down, it’s flooding up. Curbing excessive pay would be a benefit for everyone.

Business also needs greater stability, a long-term plan and a transport system that works.

So does the British public.

Which is why Labour is committed to bringing the shambolic private train system, which puts profit before people, back into public ownership.

That’s not ideological, it’s straightforwardly logical.

When Labour took the East Coast line into public ownership, over six years it delivered a better service, improved passenger satisfaction and gave £1 billion in profit back to the taxpayer!

And we need to make housing about homes for the many, not investment opportunities for few.

Under the Conservatives homelessness has doubled, housebuilding has fallen to the lowest level since the 1920s and when we proposed that homes for rent should be fit for human habitation, the Tories voted it down.

The next Labour Government will give people a fair chance by putting decent, affordable homes at the heart of our programme for the country.

We’ll build thousands more genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy, give renters a new charter of rights, end rough sleeping and help young people on ordinary incomes to buy a home of their own.

And we’ll also end the ridiculous restriction on local authorities’ ability to build the council homes local people need and on councils’ ability to license private landlords to drive up standards.

And finally, we will provide a long-term funding solution to our most precious national treasure, our NHS.

Jeremy Hunt says there are problems at “one or two hospitals”. The Prime Minister says there have been “a small number of incidents”.

Contrast that with what the professionals say:

The BMA says, “conditions in hospitals across the country are reaching a dangerous level”.

The Royal College of Nursing said this week that NHS conditions are the worst ever

And the Royal College of Physicians said that the NHS is, “underfunded, under doctored and overstretched.”

But the Prime Minister tells us this morning that the real reason we have a crisis in the NHS is not because her Government has slashed billions from social care budgets and underfunded our health service.

No. She’s told her No10 advisors to tell the media the real people to blame are the hard pressed and under pressure GPs.

The BMA has accused the Prime Minister of scapegoating overstretched GP services and deflecting blame because funding is not keeping up with demand.

This is another example of a Prime Minister in denial.

A Prime Minister who would much rather listen to spin doctors than real doctors.

I know who I believe. It worries me and it should worry us all.

I don’t keep talking about the NHS because it’s in Labour’s comfort zone, I talk about the National Health Service because it’s in a danger zone.

Much of this is about the systematic neglect of our elderly people, over a million of whom are not getting the social care they need.

Labour will not let the elderly down people who’ve worked all their lives, paid their taxes and made a massive contribution to society

A total of 380 care home businesses have been declared insolvent since 2010. That’s because the amount Councils pay towards fees for residents is falling while costs are increasing.
So we warn Theresa May today; if you don’t put the money into social care now, the system is at serious risk of breakdown.

In its fifth annual report, the Care Quality Commission found that one in five nursing homes did not have enough staff on duty to ensure people received good, safe care.

That is an outrage.

So a Labour Government would give social care the funding it needs and give a firm commitment to take failed private care homes into public ownership to maintain social care protection.

It’s the least we can do to guarantee dignity for people who’ve given so much to our country.

Let this be a year of new beginnings and opportunities.

What’s our mission?

To restore hope and show how we can challenge and overturn a rigged system, hand back wealth and power to people and communities and create a fairer, more equal society.

Not let up in our demands that this Government gives the NHS and social care the support they need

Our party and movement of over half a million members, and millions of affiliated trade unionists, coming together to campaign for what we believe in.

A country in which power and wealth is in the hands of the many not the few.

Thank you.