The British Labor Party plans nationalisations and billions invested in public services in case of victory on 12 December.
British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday (November 21st) presented his party's very left-wing program, promising a radical change and a new Brexit deal if he wins the elections next month. Labor provides, among other things, for a series of nationalizations and billions invested in public services. All is "Fully encrypted" and achievable, says Corbyn.
On the Brexit, a key issue of the December 12 poll, he promises to negotiate a new exit agreement with Brussels and submit it to the vote of the British within six months, in a referendum that would also offer them the choice to stay in the European Union (EU).
Labor is currently in second place in the polls, far behind the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But Jeremy Corbyn hopes to galvanize voters as he did in the last election in 2017.
Speaking from Birmingham in central England, where he presented his program, the leader of the Labor Party said the manifesto counted "Many popular measures that the political establishment has blocked for a generation". As from the beginning of the campaign, he repeated his attacks against the rich and the powerful, claiming that after nine years of austerity under different conservative governments "The time has come for a real change".
Billions in health
Among the nationalizations announced, that of a part of the large telecommunications group British Telecom (BT) to achieve one of the most spectacular promises of the party: provide free broadband to all. Labor also wants to nationalize or renationalize rail, water and mail and inject billions into health, education and transportation.
On the corporate side, the party wants to better represent employees on boards of directors and reduce the pay gap between the biggest and the lowest wages. Labor also plans to build 150,000 social or low-cost housing units per year. Taxes would rise for the top five percent of Britons.
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that 55 billion pounds (64 billion euros) per year of investment spending by the Labor Party, against 20 billion pounds per year for the Conservative Party. The Tories counter-attacked by announcing their intention to cut taxes for the lowest wages and build at least one million homes in five years.
After three postponements of the exit date of the European Union, Boris Johnson focuses his campaign on the implementation of Brexit without further delay if he obtains a majority in Parliament allowing him to vote the exit agreement that he negotiated with Brussels.
