Jeremy Corbyn has delivered the second speech of his leadership at the TUC conference in Brighton this afternoon and it was a slight improvement on the first. The idiosyncratic address Corbyn gave after winning the Labour leadership contest was long-winded and repetitive. His TUC address shared some of these characteristics but it was a little bit more polished — in particular, the section where he slammed David Cameron and George Osborne for being ‘poverty deniers’:
‘They call us deficit deniers. But then they spend billions cutting taxes for the richest families or for the most profitable businesses. What they are is poverty deniers: Ignoring the growing queues at food banks. Ignoring the growing housing crisis. Cutting tax credits when child poverty rose by half a million under the last government to over four million. Let’s be clear austerity is a political choice not an economic necessity.’
Corbyn also promised to fight the government to the bitter end over the Trade Union Bill…
‘For the Tories, you are still the enemy within. They think they will put me and Labour on the back foot by highlighting our support for trade unionism. I am a proud trade unionist. We will fight this Bill all the way, and if it becomes law we will repeal it in 2020.’
…the Welfare Bill too…
‘Labour will oppose the welfare bill in full. We oppose the benefit cap. We oppose social cleansing. We will bring the welfare bill down by controlling rents and boosting wages, not by impoverishing families and socially cleansing our communities.’
…as well as throwing in some good old class warfare:
‘The elites in our society look with contempt on people with brilliance and ideas just because they don’t speak like them or look like them’
Corbyn’s speech was delivered by a staunch trade unionist to an audience of trade union delegates, so it might be unfair to judge it on what ordinary folks would make of it. Since Saturday, Corbyn has avoided contact with the world outside of his hard-left comfort zone but now he is leading a major party, all of his pronouncements will be judged on a much greater scale.
Talking about the ‘enemy within’ is catnip for his loyal supporters, but ordinary commuters who have suffered at the hands of the RMT may feel differently. All of the indications so far suggest Corbyn is going to be a no-compromise Labour leader and his speech to the TUC ticked all the boxes you might expect. As we’ll likely see at PMQs tomorrow, it’s something that the Tories will take delight in pulling apart.
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