Launching Labour’s general election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn asked voters “whose side are you on?” as he pitched Boris Johnson and the Tories as the party of the “elite.”
In his London speech, the Labour leader named representatives of what he calls a “rigged system.” This included the chairman of Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe, whose firm sponsors the biggest British pro-cycling team.
It is thought to be the first time the opposition leader named the likes of Ratcliffe, who he accused of profiting from pollution.
He also addressed the landowner heir the Duke of Westminster, hedge funder Crispin Odey, Sports Direct chief Mike Ashley and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The Duke of Westminster, inherited billions of pounds as well as Odey who Jeremy Corbyn accused of making money from the Brexit crisis.
Mr Corbyn claimed Boris Johnson’s “born-to-rule Conservatives” only stand for the “privileged few” and warned the UK that “real change is coming”.
Mr Corbyn said: “Whose side are you on? The dodgy landlords, like the Duke of Westminster, Britain’s youngest billionaire, who tried to evict whole blocks of families, to make way for luxury apartments? Or the millions of tenants in Britain who struggle to pay their rent each month?
“Whose side are you on? The bad bosses like Mike Ashley, the billionaire who won’t pay his staff properly and is running Newcastle United into the ground? Or his exploited workforce, like the woman who was reportedly forced to give birth in a warehouse toilet because she was terrified of missing her shift?
“Whose side are you on? The big polluters like Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man who makes his money by polluting the environment? Or the children growing up in our cities with reduced lung capacity because of choking pollution?
“Whose side are you on? The greedy bankers like Crispin Odey, who makes millions betting against our country and on other people’s misery and donated huge sums to Johnson and the Conservative party? Or are you on the side of working people, the people who create the wealth that’s then squirrelled away in tax havens?
“And whose side are you on? The billionaire media barons like Rupert Murdoch, whose empire pumps out propaganda to support a rigged system. Or the overwhelming majority who want to live in a decent, fair, diverse and prosperous society?
“You know whose side Labour’s on.”
“Boris Johnson thought he was being smart holding this election in a dark and cold December. He thinks you won’t go out to vote. He thinks you won’t go out to campaign.
“Well, I say this: Labour will be out there in every city, town and village with the biggest and most confident campaign that our country has ever seen bringing a message of hope and change to every community. Even if the rivers freeze over, we’re going out to bring about real change for the many, not the few.”
Picture: CNN International
