The election of Jeremy Corbyn was no surprise to those of us who have contacts in the Labour Party. His appointment of John McDonnell was also a forgone conclusion as they have been close in the House of Commons fighting the Conservatives and frequently the pre-election Labour Party. For those who were in London in the 1980s remember the fights with the deep left. Amazingly Corbyn does appeal to many of the young who like the fact he is different. But he isn’t as he has not changed since his early 1980 days as an Islington Councillor.
I set out below a few notes gleaned on Corbyn from Conservative Central Office.
Labour are now a serious risk to our nation’s security, our economy’s security and your family’s security.
Whether it’s weakening our defences, raising taxes on jobs and earnings, racking up more debt and welfare or driving up the cost of living by printing money – Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party will hurt working people.
This is a very serious moment for our country – the Conservatives will continue to deliver stability, security and opportunity for working people.
A risk to our national security
Labour would:
- Scrap Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent. ‘I am against the replacement of Trident and the nuclear missile system that goes with it’ (Jeremy Corbyn, Warrington Leadership Hustings, 25 July 2015).
- All but dismantle our Armed Forces. ‘Why do have to be able to have planes, transport aircraft, aircraft carriers and everything else to get anywhere in the world? Why?’ (The Sun, 2 September 2015).
- Withdraw from NATO: ‘I’d rather we weren’t in it’ (New Statesman, 29 July 2015).
- Give Argentina joint control of the Falkland Islands. He has called for ‘some degree of joint administration’ of the Falkland Islands (Daily Politics, 14 January 2013).
Labour’s leader has also:
- Made excuses for Russian action in Ukraine. ‘Everything has an equal and opposite reaction and so the more you build up NATO forces, the more of an excuse the Russians have’ (Daily Mail, 11 August 2015).
- Opposed anti-terror legislation. ‘The Counter-terrorism and Security Bill continued to make its way through parliament, against my wishes and without my support!’ (Jeremy Corbyn, 22 January 2015).
- Shared platforms with known terrorists and called terrorist groups ‘friends’. ‘It will be my pleasure and my honour to host an event in parliament where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking…I’ve also invited friends from Hamas to come and speak as well. Unfortunately the Israelis would not allow them to travel here’ (The Express, 29 June 2015).
A risk to our economy’s security
Labour’s leader opposes all spending cuts and would borrow more:
- He believes Labour ‘spent too little’ before the crisis. ‘We made a huge mistake in allowing the Tories to get away with the idea that the last Labour government spent too much. We didn’t, we actually spent too little’ (Nottingham hustings, 28 June 2015). ‘The last Labour government didn’t spend too much, except perhaps on defence’ (Twitter, 6 June 2015).
- He would ‘borrow’ more in 2020. ‘if the deficit has been closed by 2020 and the economy is growing, then Labour should not run a current budget deficit – but we should borrow to invest in our future prosperity’ (The Economy in 2020, 22 July 2015, p. 4).
- He opposes making any spending cuts to clear the deficit. ‘I think our mistake is… accepting the view that there has to be continuing public spending cuts’ (Nottingham hustings, 28 June 2015). ‘You don’t close the deficit fairly or sustainably through cuts’ (The Economy in 2020, 22 July 2015, p. 4).
- Instead, Corbyn would try and clear the structural deficit 100 per cent through tax rises. ‘You don’t close the deficit fairly or sustainably through cuts. You close it through growing a balanced and sustainable economy that works for all. And by asking those with income and wealth to spare to contribute more’ (ibid.).
- Labour’s own analysis says Corbyn’s spending plans would mean £55 billion more spending. ‘An analysis by the Labour Party has suggested other policies such as reversing welfare cuts, opposing further public spending decreases and axing tuition fees will cost £55 billion a year’ (Telegraph, 8 August 2015).
- He wants to print money to fund more spending: ‘One option would be for the Bank of England to be given a new mandate to upgrade our economy to invest in new large scale housing, energy, transport and digital projects: Quantitative easing for people instead of banks’ (Jeremy Corbyn, The Economy in 2020, 22 July 2015, p. 6). This has been attacked by Labour Shadow Chancellor Chris Leslie, who said the policy would ‘hit those on the lowest incomes, the poorest people who couldn’t afford those goods and services’ (Independent, 3 August 2015). and Yvette Cooper. ‘It’s one thing to use QE to boost liquidity when the economy has crashed. But if you try it when the economy is growing, you push up inflation, destroy confidence in the currency, lose jobs and investment, and create a cost of living crisis too’ (Guardian, 24 August 2015).
- He has opposed all welfare savings since 2010. ‘George Osborne’s first action after 2010 was to rush through his “spending review” - the central feature of which was to “cut welfare spending” as rapidly as possible. The results are obvious - lower wages, reduced in-work benefits, the bedroom tax and a draconian approach towards people with disabilities’ (Jeremy Corbyn, Morning Star, 27 March 2014). And he opposed our 2015 welfare reforms:‘I am voting against the Government on the Welfare Bill tonight because I believe it will increase child poverty’ (Jeremy Corbyn Press Release, 20 July 2015).
- He opposes the benefit cap. ‘No, I will not back it…it means the social cleansing of all of central London because of the reductions in the benefit cap’ (GMB Labour Leadership Hustings, 9 June 2015).
Labour are anti-business – threatening investment and jobs
- He opposes free market economics, the foundation of economic prosperity. ‘We have to turn our backs on the principle of the free market economy and start to look at global concerns and the rights of people to a humane life, housing, education, jobs and health’ (Hansard, 16 November 1995).
- He supports ‘a planned economy’. ‘There were some serious problems with the way in which Tony Blair and New Labour approached things … [one] was the promotion of markets rather than a planned economy of any level of planning in the economy’ (Newsnight Labour Leadership Hustings, 17 June 2015).
He would raise taxes on business, putting jobs at risk.
- Higher corporation tax. Jeremy Corbyn has proposed ‘adding 2 per cent to corporation tax’ to fund ‘a lifelong learning service’ (Labourlist, 27 July 2015). He has also suggested ‘increasing corporation tax to 20.5 per cent to fund maintenance grants’ (Jeremy Corbyn Press Release, 16 July 2015). So under Corbyn, businesses could immediately face a 4.5 per cent tax rise.
- Ending business tax reliefs – a tax rise on business. ‘Another option would be to strip out some of the huge tax reliefs and subsidies on offer to the corporate sector. These amount to £93 billion a year’ (Jeremy Corbyn,The Economy in 2020, 22 July 2015).
- He would risk investment by nationalising key industries with ‘no compensation’. John McDonnell – tipped to be Shadow Chancellor under Corbyn – said this could involve offering ‘no compensation’ to the businesses involved (John McDonnell, Guardian, 22 August 2015).
- ‘Now is the time, more than ever, to call for public ownership and control of the banking system and financial service industries’ (Jeremy Corbyn, Morning Star, 5 July 2012).
- ‘I would want the public ownership of the gas and the National Grid . . . [and] I would personally wish that the big six were under public control, or public ownership in some form’ (Jeremy Corbyn, Financial Times, 7 August 2015).
- ‘A Labour government under this leadership would introduce a new Railways Act in 2020 to progressively bring the railways back into public control’ (Jeremy Corbyn, A People’s Railway, August 2015).
- He wants rent controls. ‘Labour should establish a Living Rent Commission to implement controls on spiraling rents and protect tenants in the private rented sector, capping rent increases’ (A Better Future for Young People, August 2015).
A risk to your family’s security
- Labour would increase tax on people’s earnings. Asked if he would tax earners more: ‘if they were earning over £50,000 a year, perhaps a bit more, over £100,000 quite a lot more’ (Newsnight, 8 June 2015).
- He has implied that he would increase the basic rate of income tax. ‘We have to talk about tax. The basic rate of income tax was 25 per cent a generation ago; now it’s 20 per cent… if we want dignity for all in old age, then it has to be paid for’ (Telegraph, 1 September 2015).
- He proposes a new 7 per cent national insurance rate for those earning over £50,000. Jeremy Corbyn has proposed ‘a new 7 per cent national insurance rate for those earning over £50,000’ (Labourlist, 15 July 2015).