LONDON: Britain’s opposition Labour Party faced embarrassment Thursday after a draft of its platform for next month’s election was leaked days before its scheduled release.
The draft election manifesto says that if elected Labour will re-nationalise Britain’s railways and post office, abolish university tuition fees, ban “zero hours” employment contracts, build more social housing and reverse cuts to welfare benefits.
The party says the pledges will be paid for out of taxation and redirected revenue.
The governing Conservatives said the policies show Labour has an outdated left-wing economic vision.
The party had planned to publish the document next week before the June 8 election. The unveiling of the parties’ manifestoes — containing solid promises on which they can be held to account — is a centrepiece of every British election.
Labour election coordinator Andrew Gwynne said the leaked document was not the final manifesto but “a draft of policy ideas.”
Corbyn pulled out of a campaign appearance Thursday morning after the leak.
The UK’s opposition Labour Party sought to make the best of leaked proposals for its election manifesto.
Those who released the draft “have done us a favour,” Ian Lavery, Labour’s campaign coordinator, told reporters in London at the poster launch where he replaced Corbyn as lead speaker. “What I’ve seen this morning is that people are very excited” about Labour’s “visionary policies that will renew Britain.”
Corbyn was too busy with “internal matters” to attend, he said. Corbyn’s office declined to comment on the contents of the leak.
With less than a month to go before the June 8 election, Labour is lagging Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives by about 20 points. The party has been criticised for failing to provide a viable opposition to May, both over Brexit and the economy. Local elections last week suggest May is on course to significantly increase her majority in the House of Commons.
Other measures cited in the draft document include totally abolishing university tuition fees and ordering the construction of 100,000 new state-funded rental homes a year, while a new Ministry of Labour would boost workers’ rights.
The launch of the manifesto is usually a key moment for any party leadership as it gives a clear opportunity to spell out the programme for government, galvanise activists and gain momentum in the campaign.
When the final document is released, it will inevitably be measures against the earlier version that entered the public domain. Conservatives immediately began to pick it apart.
“The commitments in this dossier will rack up tens of billions of extra borrowing for our families and will put Brexit negotiations at risk,” according to a statement from the Conservative party. “Jobs will be lost, families will be hit and our economic security damaged for a generation if Jeremy Corbyn and the coalition of chaos are ever let anywhere near the keys to Downing Street.”
