London, April 20 (IANS): The UK’s main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday vowed to “overturn the rigged system” by putting power and wealth back in the hands of “the people”.
During his first campaign event for the general election on June 8, he said the upcoming poll was not a “foregone conclusion” and Labour could defy the “establishment experts”, the BBC reported.
He said the election was fight between the “wealthy ruling Conservatives” versus Labour and the people, adding that he wanted to give preference to the majority’s interests.
“Labour is the party that will put the interests of the majority first, while the Tories (Conservatives) only really care about those who already have so much,” he said, adding this was why he was determined to “prove the establishment experts wrong and change the direction of this election.”
Corbyn said his party was not intimidated by the groups that were hoarding the UK’s money and insisted he would make sure everyone paid their taxes, Efe news reported.
He spoke in defence of ordinary people who he said spent their lives working hard and in the end were left with almost nothing.
“Compare their lives with the multinational corporations and the gilded elite who hide their money in the Cayman Islands because the Conservatives are too morally bankrupt to take them on,” he said.
On Tuesday, 522 lawmakers backed the motion to approve the general election proposal, while 13 voted against it.
Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Tuesday that a snap general election would be held on June 8, despite having repeatedly said that the country would not be going back to the polling stations.
She said she would be holding the vote as the UK was in need of stable leadership that could guarantee certainty and security in the face of the Brexit negotiations that are soon to begin.
Corby, on Thursday also said that Labour was the only party that would “focus on the kind of country we want to have after Brexit” – dismissing May’s election campaign as an “ego trip about her own failing leadership”, reports the BBC.
Corbyn’s speech received a standing ovation from the invited audience of Labour members and was designed in part to motivate newer recruits in particular to campaign over the next seven weeks.
