Britons are dying earlier under the Tories, says Corbyn, as he launches local elections campaign

Jeremy Corbyn will today accuse the Tories of running the country so badly that Britons are dying earlier.

The Labour leader will launch Labour’s local elections campaign with a hard-hitting speech denouncing the government for “running our country down in every way” and highlighting figures which, he says, show life expectancy is falling.

Corbyn will deliver the keynote speech in Newark, Nottinghamshire, as he tries to bounce back from a series of poor poll ratings.

Labour is hopeful of taking a series of the “metro mayor” posts, when local elections are held exactly a month today, despite the gloomy forecasts for its national share of the vote.

Yesterday Labour was 18 points behind the Tories, according to a Guardian/ICM survey, which the pollster said was the lowest level the had recorded since its general election defeat under Ed Miliband. Separately Robert Hayward, an elections expert and Tory peer, claimed Labour would lose 125 seats in the council elections on May 4.

Today Corbyn will aim to turn his fire on the Tories when he visits Newark, a former Labour seat.

He will accuse the Tories of failing the nation, particularly pensioners, despite Britain’s relative affluence.

“How can you not be angry and demand major change when life expectancy in Britain for pensioners and those aged 45 is falling? We are a rich country, the sixth richest in the world. We are not at war, there is no epidemic sweeping our land,” Corbyn is expected to say.

“So how on earth can life expectancy be falling?

“The truth is that the Tories are running our country down. Home ownership, opportunities for our children, wages and conditions at work, the NHS, care for our elderly, and now, life expectancy: they’re all going backwards, run down by a Conservative Government that looks after those at the top and manages decline for the rest of us.”