General election: 'Real change is coming,' says Corbyn at Labor's campaign launch – live news – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

From the Scotsman’sParis Gourtsoyannis

Corbyn is now on his peroration.

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Boris Johnsonthought he was being smart holding this election in a dark and cold December. He thinks you won’t go out to vote. He thinks you won’t go out to campaign.

Well I say this:Laborwill be out there in every city, town and village with the biggest and most confident campaign that our country has ever seen, bringing a message of hope and change to every community.

Even if the rivers freeze over, we’re going out to bring about real change for the many, not the few.

All we need to keep us warm is the thought of removing Boris Johnson’sConservativesfrom government – and the chance to rebuild and transform our country.

Back in Battersea Arts Center Corbyn says, whenLaborwins, everyone wins.

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Hundreds of thousands of people in every part of our country who will make this the biggest people-powered campaign in history.

We’re young, we’re old, we’re black, we’re white, we’re straight, we’re gay, we’re women, we’re men, we’re people of all faiths and none, from the North and from the South.

And when Labor wins, the nurse wins, the pensioner wins, the student wins, the office worker wins, the engineer wins. We all win.

The Conservative party press office is posting tweets rebutting Corbyn’s speech as he delivers it. Here are some examples.

Corbyn saysBoris Johnsonwants people to think that Brexit is being blocked by an establishment elite. But people know that the Conservatives are the establishment elite, he says.

Corbyn is now using the “Who’s side are you on” passage I quoted earlier. (See (9.) am.)

Corbyn says a decade of Conservative cuts has done huge damage to the country.

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After a decade when real wages have fallen, for too many people, what they see is the community they love being run down through years of deliberate neglect. The evidence of a decade of economic vandalism is all around them.

It’s there in the boarded up shops. In the closed library and swimming pool. In youth centers that have closed their doors. The high street like a ghost town. The elderly couple who are scared to walk down their road because violent crime has doubled. The army veteran sleeping under blankets in a doorway. People struggling to make ends meet. The mother and her children eating from a food bank because they’ve been forced onto universal credit.

That’s the evidence of Conservative cuts. Well I say, no more.

Laborwould end austerity and scrap universal credit, he says.

Corbyn turns to the claim thatBrexitcould open up the NHS to American corporations.

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Despite his denials, the NHS is up for grabs by US corporations in a one-sided Trump trade sell-out.

Channel 4 Dispatches revealed this week that the cost of drugs and medicines has repeatedly been discussed between US and UK trade officials. Remember Johnson’s famous promise of £ 350 ma week for the NHS? Well his toxic Brexit trade deal with Trump could hand over £ 500 ma week of NHS money to big drugs corporations.

We will stop them.Laborwon’t let Donald Trump get his hands on our National Health Service. It’s not for sale, to him or anyone.

(I am using the quotes from the text sent out by Labor. Corbyn is making some minor changes to the text, but the quotes I am using represent what he is saying.)

At this point activists in the hall break into a change of “Not for sale” for (seconds or so.)

Corbyn turns toBrexit.

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Friends, today is the 31 st of October, the dayBoris Johnsonpromised we would leave the EU. He said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than delay beyond today. But he has failed. And that failure is his alone.

You can’t trust Boris Johnson.

Corbyn confirms Labour’s plan to hold a referendum, with voters being given a choice between a “sensible deal” and remain.

It is not complicated, he says (trying to counter claims that Labor Brexit policy is not straightforward.)

Corbyn says this election is a once in a generation chance to transform the country, and to ensure that no community in any part of the country is ever left behind again.

Some people say real change is not possible, he says. Really? A health service where people do not have to wait, and prescriptions are free? Is that asking too much?

Is it asking to much to have a care system where people are treated with dignity, with free personal care?

It is asking to much to have a real living wage for everyone, including young workers from the age of 16?

Is it asking too much to have homes that people can afford, rents that don’t break the bank, and an end to the disgrace of rough sleeping?

30 hours free childcare for all children. A good education from cradle to grave. Is that too much to ask?

Corbyn says he would put rail, mail and water into public ownership, ending the Tory rip-off.

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What about real action on the climate crisis by creating hundreds of thousands of new, green energy jobs in communities where they’re most desperately needed?

No, that’s not asking too much. Because we have to radically change course now to avoid living on a hostile and dying planet.

Jeremy Corbynis speaking now.

He says he is launching the most ambitious and radical campaign the country has ever seen.

If you want to live in a society that works for everyone, not just billionaires, if you want to stop the cuts and save the environment, then this is your chance to vote for it.

He says the choice could not be clearer.

Labor stands with you, he says. It will put wealth and power in the hands of the many. Boris Johnson’sConservatives, who think they are born to rule, will only ever look after the few, he says.

De Cordova is talking about her constituents have been affected by government spending cuts. And, onBrexit, she says regardless of how people voted, no one voted for their living standards to go down.

Battersea voted overwhelmingly to remain, as she did, she says.

And she says onlyLaborwill sort Brexit out , by giving the British people a final say.

Labor will end the privatisation of the NHS, she says. It will build more home, and tackle the climate crisis through Labor’s’s green new deal.

Marsha de Cordova,the Labor MP for Battersea, is introducingJeremy Corbyn. The event is in Battersea Arts Center.

She won the seat from the Tories in 2017 with a majority of 2, 416.

She says Battersea has a radical history. London’s first black mayor, John Archer, was elected in this very building, she says.

From the BBC’sLaura Kuenssberg

TheLaborcampaign launch is due to start at 11 am.

These are from the BBC’sPeter Saull,who is there.