Corbyn: I was proved “absolutely right” on public spending

Jeremy Corbyn has told the BBC that the economic measures taken during the coronavirus crisis means he has been proved “absolutely right” on public spending.

The outgoing Labour leader said: “I did everything I possibly could to win both elections and to say to the people of this country, the only way our society can come together is if we’re prepared to invest.

“I was denounced as somebody that wanted to spend more money than we could possibly afford, in order to write the social wrongs of this country.

“I didn’t think that it would take only three months for me to be proved absolutely right by the amount of money that government is now prepared to put in – and parliament has just voted through – to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

“So this is a change in our politics, which the coronavirus crisis has actually meant in every country in the world. There’s suddenly a realisation that we’re only as healthy as the safety of our neighbour.”

In the interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Corbyn said the government had been “shocked” by the emergency, which didn’t align with their “instincts” for “free market economics and the small state”.

He added: “They’ve now suddenly realised that they have to spend money to invest in the state, as we have always said as a party, and they have come around to a lot of that position.”

The government has committed to directly funding 80% of the wages, up to £2,500 a month, of furloughed workers and the self-employed during the coronavirus crisis.

The Chancellor has also vowed to give the NHS “whatever it needs” in financial support to be able to cope with the health impact of the pandemic that is already putting the service under enormous strain.

Corbyn was asked whether he made mistakes during his leadership, which will come to an end on April 4th when the winner of Labour’s leadership contest is announced.

“Of course,” he replied. “I’m a human, of course I made mistakes. You make appointments that don’t particularly work out, you give faith in people that don’t necessarily return it too well, and you sometimes make judgement mistakes. We all do.

“But I have a way of doing things which a lot of people don’t fully understand, which is actually very tolerant of people, and I listen a great deal to a lot of people.

“I spend a lot of my life listening to people, and try and move us and persuade people along in a particular direction. I do not believe in leadership by dictatorship. I believe in leadership by bringing people together.”

The Labour leader blamed the general election defeat on the party’s Brexit position, which promised to renegotiate the withdrawal deal and put it to another referendum against Remain.

He said this policy “clearly did not win the election”, though added: “I did my best to bring people together on the principles that in or out of the EU, we needed to have an investment-led economy, we needed to be anti-austerity.”

Asked whether his leadership was also to blame for the loss, Corbyn said he had received an “unprecedented level of abuse from the mainstream media of me personally”.