Jeremy Corbyn: Labour will “fight for every seat in every corner of these isles”

Jeremy Corbyn - image credit: Joe Giddens/PA Wire/PA Images

Jeremy Corbyn will pledge a ten pound per hour ‘real living wage’ while guaranteeing a ‘triple lock’ on pensions during a campaign visit to Scotland today.

Speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) in Aviemore, the Labour leader will promise to Repeal the Trade Union Act, open inquiries into ‘blacklisting’ and require companies holding public contracts to recognise trade unions.

Nicola Sturgeon will also appear at the STUC, with the First Minister expected to use her speech to warn against the consequences of a ‘hard Brexit’.

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She will say: “We are at the start of an election campaign where competing visions will be put before the people – and one of those visions, the Tory vision, should be ringing alarm bells loud and clear across Scotland.

“The hard-liners have taken over the Tory Party. And now the Tory hard-liners want to take over the country.

“Scotland knows there has always been a cost to voting Conservative – but the price of voting Tory at this election has never been higher.

“And it will be those least able to pay that price who will bear the biggest burden.”

With polling released yesterday suggesting Labour could see its support halve from 2015, Corbyn will pledge to “fight for every seat in every corner of these isles”, with the Labour leader attempting to frame the early election as “the people versus the powerful”.

He will say: “Labour will challenge the rigged system that is holding our country back. And just like trade unions, we will stand for the many not the few.

“Labour will never, ever apologise for the closeness of our relationship with the trade union movement – you are our family.

“That is why one of the very first things we will do when forming our Labour Government will be to repeal the vicious Tory Trade Union Act. Giving working people the rights to collectively organise and make their lives better, safer and more content.”

He added: “We will put conditions on the massive public spending budget with private business to ensure no company wins a public contract if they avoid or evade taxes, don’t pay their local suppliers on time, or don’t recognise trade unions.

“We will never put tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthiest above our vital public services like our social care system and NHS. And we will give schools and colleges - those engines of opportunity - the funding they need.

“Only Labour will negotiate a Brexit deal which protects the interests of working people.

“Labour’s Brexit deal will build on the rights won for workers, consumers and the environment in the EU. We will put jobs and living standards first.

“That’s why Labour is campaigning to win every seat across the whole country.”