Labour launches ‘radical’ manifesto

Britain’s main opposition Labour party on Thursday unveiled its general election manifesto, promising a radical agenda for social change, including nationalising key industries and a controversial second referendum on Brexit.

Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called it “the most radical and ambitious plan to transform our country in decades” and a “once-in-a-generation chance of real change”.

Key pledges included the nationalisation of the rail, water, energy and broadband networks, in addition to huge investment in public services, corporate reforms and the introduction of a 32-hour working week.

Labour has promised a “green industrial revolution” to tackle what Corbyn called “the climate emergency”, by focusing new jobs and industries on efforts to tackle global warming.

Labour says that within six months of taking office, it will strike a new exit deal with the European Union and hold a second referendum on Britain’s membership.

“The British people have the final say. Our government will carry it out, whatever the result of that vote is,” Corbyn told an audience of party activists and media.

At the manifesto launch in Birmingham, central England, he said the programme was “full of popular policies that the political establishment has blocked for a generation”.

The manifesto includes big-ticket promises such as a five per cent pay rise for public sector workers and the abolition of university tuition fees.