Jeremy Corbyn announces plans for full employment ahead of first leadership hustings

Jeremy Corbyn - credit: PA

Jeremy Corbyn will today announce plans to invest £500bn in UK infrastructure and create a million new jobs, as part of plans to secure full employment.

Speaking ahead of the first hustings event of the Labour leadership contest against Owen Smith, the Labour leader will outline the plan as part of a ten-point vision for Britain.

Ahead of the head-to-head meeting in Cardiff, Smith reiterated his warning that Labour risks splitting if Corbyn remains leader.

Corbyn’s speech will cover a range of issues, including new public investments, stronger working rights and opposition to private provision in the NHS.

He will announce plans to build 500,000 new council homes and a new ‘National Education Service’ to cover free childcare, school, further and higher education.

“We could all be living richer lives in a sustainable, more prosperous and more caring society,” he will say.

“Labour will pledge to rebuild and transform Britain with a bold £500bn programme of investment.”

Allies of Labour leader have accused Smith of trying to “blackmail” members by talking up the prospect of the party dividing unless he wins the contest.

In an interview with the Guardian, the former shadow work and pensions secretary said: “We are teetering on the edge of a precipice here. The party could be split. The party that has been here for 116 years as the greatest source of social and economic justice could be bust apart and disappear.”

A source close to Corbyn responded to the comments by attacking him as the “disunity candidate”.

“Owen Smith has now resorted to blackmail. It just shows how desperate his campaign has become and the lengths to which he’s prepared to descend to that he’s now trying scare Labour members into voting for him.

“If Owen is really opposed to a split, all he has to do is denounce the small minority of MPs backing his campaign who are calling for one. And publicly commit that he will accept the outcome of this election and serve under Jeremy. It really is that simple. Anything less shows it’s a cheap tactic from a disunity candidate.”

Polling by YouGov suggested Labour’s support would fall to approximately 20 per cent if either the left or the right of the party split off.

One of the ‘Gang of Four’ that left Labour to form the SDP in the 1980s said the party faced a “dismal future” and was in a worse state than when the first split happened.

Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank told The Times: “We had a clear objective and were able to find our way ahead. I can’t see now that there is any equivalent sort of leadership.

“Owen Smith is not a figure of weight, influence and significance and I wouldn’t believe that he would be able to give very effective leadership of a kind we had then.”