Jeremy Corbyn has launched a charm offensive on older voters in a speech aimed at broadening the appeal of his party’s radical left-wing vision.
The UK Labour leader heaped praise on the baby boomer generation before pledging to protect the triple lock on pensions and universal benefits.
Demanding a general election in his leader’s address in Liverpool, he said his party is “ready” for government and will rebuild a country that rejects the “greed is good” culture.
At the culmination of Labour’s four-day conference in Liverpool, he laid out plans for 400,000 new skilled jobs in the windfarm industry and other green projects, an extension of free childcare in England, workers’ seats on boards and an end to the “racket of privatisation and outsourcing”.
Turning to mature voters, who could hand him the keys to Number 10, the Islington North MP said he wanted to “make an appeal to the older generation who built modern Britain”.
He credited them with rebuilding post-war Britain, adding “It was your work and taxes that paid for a better retirement for those who went before you.
“So we owe it you, the older generation, to rebuild Britain so you too have peace of mind and dignity.”
“And we will fulfil that obligation with the triple lock on pensions protected along with the winter fuel allowance, a free bus pass and a national health and care service that can look after you and your families with respect.”
“At the end of a conference dominated by Brexit, Mr Corbyn confirmed that Labour will vote against Theresa May’s Chequers plan and keep the option of a second referendum on EU withdrawal “on the table”.
But he left no doubt that a general election is his preferred outcome, sending a message to the Prime Minister: “If you deliver a deal that includes a customs union and no hard border in Ireland, if you protect jobs, people’s rights at work and environmental and consumer standards – then we will support that sensible deal.
“A deal that would be backed by most of the business world and trade unions too.
“But if you can’t negotiate that deal then you need to make way for a party that can.”
Mr Corbyn sought to draw a line under the anti-Semitism scandals which have dogged Labour over the summer, promising to “eradicate anti-Semitism” and telling the Jewish community: “We are your ally.”
But he made clear that he would not back away from criticism of Israel and announced – to the waving of Palestinian flags – that a Labour government would recognise a Palestinian state as soon as it took office.
Conservative chairman Brandon Lewis said: “Jeremy Corbyn has shown at every turn he is unfit to govern.
“All he offers are failed ideas that didn’t work in the past and would leave working families paying the price with higher taxes, more debt and more waste – just like last time.
“He confirmed Labour are opening the door to re-running the referendum, which would take us all back to square one.
“And he didn’t even apologise to Jewish people for his total failure to tackle the anti-Jewish racism that is rife in the Labour Party.”
Labour ‘offers hope’ in Scotland
Labour is “offering a message of hope” in Scotland against Tory austerity that the SNP refuses to fight, Jeremy Corbyn claimed.
The Nationalists hit back saying that all Labour can provide is “economic chaos and incompetence”.
After highlighting some of the party’s best results in last year’s general election, the UK Labour leader said: “In Scotland too, Labour is once again offering a message of hope and real change.
“The choice is now clear: investment and a fairer society under Labour, or austerity under the Tories, timidly accepted by the SNP.”
Labour won seven seats north of the border at last year’s general election after a near Scottish wipeout in 2015.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard thought Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to conference was “visionary, uplifting and full of hope”. He said: “Jeremy spoke about the challenges we face in Scotland and the real political differences between Labour offering investment and the other parties offering more austerity.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, said: “Labour have proven they have nothing to offer Scotland but economic chaos and incompetence – failing to provide any meaningful alternative to the Tories.
“After a bitterly divided conference, dominated by rows over Brexit, racism, and sectarianism, Labour have shown they aren’t even fit for opposition let alone government.”
Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Greens’ co-convener, said Mr Corbyn’s plans to reduce greenhouses “must act as a wakeup call to the SNP”.
“However, what we heard from Labour was also a denial of the fundamental threat of
Brexit and voters in Scotland have no certainty that Jeremy Corbyn offers an escape from this path to destruction,” he added.
