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Roundup: British Labour Party leader outlines 10 pledges to rebuild, transform country

Xinhua, August 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party, outlined Thursday 10 pledges which he claims will rebuild and transform the country.

It was Corbyn's most significant pledge so far in a bitter wrangle that has seen him face a challenge from rival MP, Owen Smith, for his job.

Smith warned in the Thursday edition of the Guardian newspaper that Labour, the traditional party of the working class, was "teetering on the edge of a precipice" and could be bust apart and disappear.

With Corbyn estranged from around 170 of his own MPs, the left-wing leader continues to attract mass support at grass roots level.

This week Corbyn attracted a crowd of 10,000 to an open-air rain-soaked rally in Liverpool where he was cheered and greeted by the masses. Just 48 hours earlier, in blazing sunshine, his rival Smith attracted 200 followers.

Corbyn unveiled his pledges in a speech at the town of Dagenham.

He said a Labour government led by him would create jobs for a million people building infrastructure projects.

He is standing on an anti-austerity ticket, vowing to ensure no parts of the country are excluding from his plans for full employment. He promised to invest nearly 660 million U.S. dollars on infrastructure, manufacturing and new industries, supported by a new National Investment Bank.

Under his leadership, the party, said Corbyn, would ignore nobody, forget nobody, with talk of an inclusive Britain rather than a left-behind Britain.

His plans include building 500,000 council homes across the country, a new National Education Service with universal public childcare and an end to private-sector involvement in Britain's free health service, the NHS.

Smith resigned last month along with most other leading Labour MPs from Corbyn's front bench shadow cabinet team. That move came as 172 Labour MPs supported a vote of no confidence in Corbyn, in a move that triggered a leadership challenge.

Smith told the Guardian that he did not want the 116-year-old Labour Party to split into two, but added that a split has become likely if Corbyn remained as leader. Smith is challenging Corbyn as a unity candidate, saying only he can reunite the divisions that have spiraled Labour into its most damaging ever civil war.

A recent poll by YouGov showed that support for Labour could fall to just 20 percent if either side splintered off, exactly half of the 40 percent who back the Conservatives.

It has led some political observers to propose that a multi-party alliance may be needed to challenge the grip of the Conservatives.

Both contenders are traveling around the country hoping to generate support. The first head-to-head hustings was set for Thursday night in the Welsh capital Cardiff, with more planned later.

More than 500,000 party members will decide the future of the party by voting for Corbyn, currently the hot favorite to win, or Smith. The result will be announced next month at the party's annual conference in Liverpool. Endit