The Labour Party’s election manifesto has lifted activists and underlined that it’s worth fighting to get the Tories out and Jeremy Corbyn in.
It offers a break from Tory austerity – and the austerity-lite approach of recent Labour leaders.
The manifesto matches the tone of Corbyn’s campaign speeches – with talk of “re-writing the rules of a rigged system”. It opens with a promise to deliver a “fairer, more prosperous society for the many, not just the few”.
The manifesto matches the tone of Corbyn’s campaign speeches – with talk of “re-writing the rules of a rigged system”.Labour has pledged to plough billions of pounds into education and the National Health Service and to scrap tuition fees.
It promises to raise the minimum wage to at least £10 an hour by 2020, repeal the Trade Union Act and end attacks on benefit claimants.
And there are plans to ban fracking, and to renationalise Royal Mail, the water system and, over a period of years, the rail industry.
There would be a state-controlled energy supplier in each region to compete with the privatised firms.
The programme would be funded by higher taxation on big business and people on more than £80,000 a year. Labour says it would raise £19.4 billion a year from corporate tax and £6.5 billion through cracking down on tax avoidance.
In addition, it would raise £1.3 billion through an “excessive pay tax”. Launching the manifesto in Bradford, Corbyn said it was a manifesto to transform the 21st century. “This manifesto is a draft for a better future. It’s a blueprint of what Britain could be.”
One Labour supporter speaking at the event said they had been “waiting for 30 years for something like this that I can fight for”.
Corbyn’s manifesto is the most radical that the Labour Party has had in years. That’s why the right hated it – and set out to sabotage it from the start.
Corbyn still has the support of hundreds of thousands of Labour Party members. But the right dominate Labour’s top hierarchy – and used their power to force through important changes.
Two Labour MPs, Frank Field and Ben Bradshaw have said they will campaign under their own manifestos.
And within hours of the manifesto being leaked – before the official document had even been published – the leader of the Welsh Labour Party disowned it.
The right pressured Corbyn to compromise over nuclear weapons last year. So the manifesto has no call to get rid of Trident or to leave the Nato alliance – despite Corbyn’s longstanding opposition to them. There are other examples.
Freedom of movement: the right, reportedly led by shadow Brexit minister Keir Starmer, forced Labour to promise to end freedom of movement. In other words, they want Labour to promise more immigration controls.
A draft of the manifesto, leaked last week, didn’t mention freedom of movement. It spoke out against it and said the “Conservative government has scapegoated migrants”.
The published manifesto does not attack the Tories over migration. It now says, “Labour will not scapegoat migrants nor blame them for economic failures”.
But it also promises “fair rules and reasonable management of migration”, and adds, “Freedom of movement will end when we leave the European Union”.
War and imperialism: the draft manifesto said Labour would “end support for aggressive wars of intervention”. This has been changed to “unilateral aggressive wars of intervention”, which means Labour could still support wars if backed by the UN.
References to the damage caused by Labour’s previous wars have been removed or toned down. And the manifesto now pledges that Labour will take “all lawful action necessary to counter and confront” ISIS and extremism.
On top of this, the draft promised a “major review of the Prevent programme”. It rightly said, “Some feel they have been unfairly targeted and singled out because of some failings in Prevent” – which is the least you can say about a programme used by cops to target and spy on Muslims.
Now the manifesto said it would asses Prevent’s “potential to alienate minority communities”. But it also wants to “address the government’s failure to take any effective new measures against a growing problem of extreme or violent radicalisation”.
Scotland: the draft manifesto had already committed Labour to opposing a second Scottish independence referendum. But that wasn’t far enough for some in Labour’s meeting to approve the draft, which Scottish Labour’s Kezia Dugdale attended.
Now the manifesto says independence is “unwanted and unnecessary, and we will campaign tirelessly to ensure Scotland remains part of the UK”.
Abortion rights: the draft said Labour would legislate to extend the 1967 Act to Northern Ireland. Now it says it will “work with the assembly” to try and change the law.
However, there were also some positive changes. There are now promises to tackle domestic abuse and violence against women.
The manifesto also says Labour will tackle “institutional biases” in the police that mean Black and Asian men are more likely to be stopped and searched.
And there’s a clearer commitment not to “waste money on inefficient free schools and the Conservatives’ grammar schools vanity project”.
Labour will “oppose any attempt to force schools to become academies”.
But most changes also show the scale of opposition Corbyn still faces from the right in his own party.
Labour has to go all out on its radical promises to beat the Tories on 8 June. Labour’s right want to hold it back.
Corbyn’s left wing manifesto points to an alternative for Labour that could help it beat the Tories. Concessions to the right can only make it weaker.
