Jeremy Corbyn campaign launch: Brexit is 'settled' and the election isn't about leaving the EU

Brexit comments: Jeremy Corbyn will launch Labour's campaign formally on Tuesday
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Robin de Peyer9 May 2017
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Jeremy Corbyn has said Brexit is “settled” and whether Britain quits the EU is not the main issue of the General Election.

Officially launching his party’s campaign today, the Labour leader will vow to pursue a deal to safeguard British industry after the UK leaves the EU.

At the event in Manchester, he will again take aim at the “rigged system”, saying that Labour can transform Britain from a country "run for the rich" to one "where everyone can lead richer lives".

After his party’s confused message over Brexit in recent weeks, Mr Corbyn will attempt to win over pro-EU Labour voters tempted to switch to the Liberal Democrats.

“This election isn't about Brexit itself. That issue has been settled,” he will say.

“The question now is what sort of Brexit do we want - and what sort of country do we want Britain to be after Brexit?

"Labour wants a jobs-first Brexit, a Brexit that safeguards the future of Britain's vital industries, a Brexit that paves the way to a genuinely fairer society and an upgraded economy."

Mr Corbyn is also expected to accuse the Tories of putting party interests above the "real national interest", following Prime Minister Theresa May’s allegations that Brussels leaked damaging details of a meeting she had with European Commission president Jean Claude-Juncker to try and influence the election.

Launching a blistering attack on what he sees as vested interests, Mr Corbyn will press home his key message that Labour offers "a real alternative to the rigged system holding us back and to the Conservatives who are running our country down".

He will say: "The economy is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful. When Labour wins there will be a reckoning for those who thought they could get away with asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed and ripping off workers and consumers.

"Don't wake up on 9 June to see celebrations from the tax cheats, the press barons, the greedy bankers, the Southern Rail directors and crooked financiers that take our wealth, who have got away with it because the party they own, the Conservative Party, has won.

"We have four weeks to ruin their party. We have four weeks to take our wealth back.

"We have four weeks to win and transform Britain for the many, not the few."

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