Jeremy Corbyn is to declare that Labour is “ready for government” as he promises to sweep away a “degraded” political system which led to the Grenfell Tower disaster.
In his keynote speech to his party’s annual conference in Brighton, he will accuse Government ministers of “bungling” Brexit talks and tell them to “pull yourselves together or make way” for Labour.
One of the Labour leader’s closest shadow cabinet allies, Angela Rayner, told Sky News that Mr Corbyn has shown he is “prime minister material” and would be able to “run Britain and run the economy better than Theresa May”.
But a poll in The Times found that voters prefer Mrs May as PM by a margin of 37% to 29% over Mr Corbyn, even while Labour stretches its lead over the Tories to four points, on 43% to 39%.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Mr Corbyn, who earlier this week suggested he could be in 10 Downing Street for a decade, will use his speech to try to show that Labour is planning for the long term, setting out his intention to “manage” the introduction of new technologies in a way that ensured ordinary people would benefit in terms of more leisure time and higher wages.
And he will reaffirm his commitment to providing free tuition in further education colleges to enable workers to retrain for the new jobs being created by automation and robotics, at an annual cost of £2.5 billion by the end of the next Parliament.
Mr Corbyn will say that the Grenfell Tower fire in west London in June, which killed around 80 people, was a symbol of a “degraded” system of “rampant inequality, the hollowing out of our public services, the disdain for the powerless and the poor” which has held sway in the UK since the days of Margaret Thatcher.
The blaze was not just “the result of bad political decisions” but stood for “a failed and broken system, which Labour must and will replace”, Mr Corbyn will say.
And he will say that Labour is now a government-in-waiting whose policies represent a “new common sense” shared by the mainstream of British people.
Mr Corbyn will say that the general election result on June 8, when Labour gained 30 seats and robbed Mrs May of her majority in the Commons, “put the Tories on notice and Labour on the threshold of power”.
“We have become a government-in-waiting,” he will say. “And our message to the country could not be clearer: Labour is ready.
Grenfell Tower in west London (Rick Findler/PA)
“Ready to tackle inequality. Ready to rebuild our NHS. Ready to give opportunity to young people, dignity and security to older people. Ready to invest in our economy and meet the challenges of climate change and automation. Ready to put peace and justice at the heart of foreign policy. And ready to build a new and progressive relationship with Europe. We are ready for government.”
As Brexit talks remain deadlocked in Brussels, Mr Corbyn will say: “The Tories are more interested in posturing for personal advantage than in getting the best deal for Britain. Never has the national interest been so ill-served on such a vital issue. If there were no other reason for the Tories to go, their self-interested Brexit bungling would be reason enough.
“So I have a simple message to the Cabinet: for Britain’s sake: pull yourself together or make way.”
A Labour government would “place power in the hands of the people”, by making public services accountable to communities, business accountable to the public and politicians accountable to voters, he will say.
And he will stress the importance of lifelong education to allow people to retrain for redeployment into new jobs as technology develops.
If managed properly, technological change can be “the gateway for a new settlement between work and leisure, a springboard for expanded creativity and culture, making technology our servant and not our master at long last”, he will say.
Buoyed by opinion polls putting it ahead of the Tories, Labour has shown a confident face to the world at its annual gathering.
Despite spats over Brexit and anti-Semitic comments on the fringe, the positive atmosphere has been a far cry from the divisions seen in Mr Corbyn’s first two conferences as leader, when centrists openly spoke about winning their party back.
His speech will reinforce the impression that the party now believes the path is clear for it to make a credible bid for power at the next election, whenever that comes.
Party officials said shadow ministers are holding talks with former civil servants in order to ensure that Labour is ready to operate the government machine. The June manifesto has been retained in its entirely as a framework for policy, but its contents are being fleshed out in preparation for a possible poll, with one aide saying: “We are talking about transforming the system, not tinkering with it.”
:: YouGov questioned 1,716 adults from September 22-24.