Conservative response to Jeremy Corbyn speech at Labour conference

Responding, Brandon Lewis MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party, said:

“Jeremy Corbyn has shown at every turn he is unfit to govern.

“All he offers are failed ideas that didn’t work in the past and would leave working families paying the price with higher taxes, more debt and more waste – just like last time.

“He confirmed Labour are opening the door to re-running the referendum, which would take us all back to square one.

“And he didn’t even apologise to Jewish people for his total failure to tackle the anti-Jewish racism that is rife in the Labour Party.

“Only the Conservatives offer people opportunity for the future.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Labour’s ideas have failed before and would leave the country struggling with more debt, more waste and ordinary working people paying for it, just like last time.

• Jeremy Corbyn failed to mention ‘debt’, ‘deficit’ and ‘borrowing’ in his speech today (Labour Press, 26 September 2018, link).

• Jeremy Corbyn’s unfunded promises announced today mean that Labour have made 37 unfunded spending commitments since the last election. That means Labour have made a new unfunded spending commitment on average once every two weeks, with the latest being on childcare and energy but others ranging from introducing free bus travel for the under-25s to abolishing the household benefit cap (CRD Analysis, available upon request).

• We are still waiting to hear how much Labour’s £176 billion renationalisation plans would cost. Shadow Minister Dawn Butler promised Sky News that Labour would send them figures by the end of the day, but we are still waiting two days later (Twitter, 24 September 2018, link).

• John McDonnell has admitted his £500 billion spending splurge doesn’t go far enough. John McDonnell has said he was ‘embarrassed about how mediocre’ Labour’s £500 billion spending is and that it was ‘just a first step’ (The Sun, 12 September 2018, link).

Labour’s Brexit chaos has confirmed they support a second referendum and would delay Brexit, taking us all back to square one.

• Corbyn’s speech confirms Labour are not ruling out delaying Brexit to hold a second referendum. ‘All options are on the table’ (Labour Press, 26 September 2018, link).

• Jeremy Corbyn refused to rule out delaying Brexit. Studio: ‘I think what you’re saying is it is an option delaying the 29 March because none of the rest of what you said makes sense unless you’re prepared to accept that’s a possibility.’ Jeremy Corbyn: ‘Look, all the options are gonna be there, that’s absolutely clear’ (ITV News, 25 September 2018, link).

• Despite the fact Keir Starmer previously said there was ‘no dispute that Britain will leave the EU in March 2019’. ‘There’s no dispute that Britain will leave the European Union in March 2019. Labour voted to trigger Article 50 and we did so knowing that we would leave the EU within two years’ (Labour Press, 14 November 2017, link).

• Emily Thornberry said Labour would extend Article 50. ‘We need to extend Article 50… I don’t know how long it’s going to take’ (Labour conference fringe event, 25 September 2018).

• Keir Starmer said that Labour are not ‘ruling out Remain as an option’ in a second referendum. ‘If we need to break the impasse our options must include campaigning for a public vote and nobody is ruling out Remain as an option’ (Sky News, 25 September 2018, link).

• But John McDonnell said Labour’s second referendum would not offer an option to remain in the EU. ‘If we are going to respect the last referendum, it will be about the deal, it will be a negotiation on the deal’ (The Independent, 24 September 2018, link).

We’ve seen yet again at this conference how Corbyn breaks his promises and fails to deliver at every turn, in particular his failure to tackle anti-Jewish racism and u-turn on student debt. 

• In his speech today, Corbyn once again failed to say sorry for the anti-Semitism scandal within Labour (Labour Press, 26 September 2018,link).

• At the start of Labour’s conference, Jeremy Corbyn refused to apologise for the anti-Jewish racism that has engulfed his party. Andrew Mar: ‘There’s an awful lot of Jewish people who just desperately want you to express personal remorse for what’s happened, and maybe you could look at the camera and apologise to them’. Jeremy Corbyn: ‘I’ll simply say this: I am an anti-racist and will die an antiracist’ (Andrew Marr Show, 23 September 2018, link).

• Labour MP Joan Ryan said the anti-Semitism scandal which has engulfed Labour is a moment of ‘great shame’. She outlined her ‘real fear’ that her own party might get into government (The Sun, 25 September 2018, link).

• Jeremy Corbyn claimed that MPs are ‘not under threat’, despite Luciana Berger being forced to have police protection at Labour Conference after months of facing anti-Semitic abuse. She said: ‘We are under attack. There are Jews in this country who do not feel safe’, yet Corbyn claimed MPs are ‘not under threat’ (The Sun, 24 September 2018, link; ITV News, 26 September 2018, link).

• Even Emily Thornberry admitted that Labour didn’t deal with the anti-Semitism scandal well. ‘I think it's very unfortunate and I think that we didn't deal with it well’ (Sky News, 25 September 2018, link).