Voters in the United Kingdom head to the polls in three weeks’ time in a snap general election called by Conservative leader and Prime Minister Theresa May. While she says the reasoning behind the election call is to provide a strong mandate in the upcoming Brexit negotiations with the European Union, it is also apparent that the disarray in the ranks of the main opposition Labour party has motivated May into calling the June 8 vote.
Now, with the publication of the Labour election manifesto, voters in Britain have a clear choice to make. Do they believe May in her call for a strong and stable government — essentially offering more of the same — or do they look at the party of Jeremy Corbyn as a serious contender for power?
If a Labour government is elected, it will renationalise train, power, the Royal Mail and water services and has laid out plans for a £48.6 billion (Dh231.2 billion) tax-and-spend programme to overhaul the UK’s crumbling infrastructure and modernise its National Health Service (NHS). It’s a carefully-crafted plan and its budgetary costings are largely explained. Those earning more than £80,000 annually will, for example, pay an income-tax rate of 45 pence on the pound.
What is clear is that empirical and anecdotal evidence paints a dismal picture of the current state of the NHS after more than a decade of Conservative government. And the UK’s train services are the most expensive per kilometre for passengers in Europe, and Labour says it will gradually nationalise the services once current franchise agreements end.
All told, Labour’s plan is ambitious. It’s just that voters believe Corbyn can’t match those ambitions.
