Jeremy Corbyn: People are angry and 'rightly so'
The Labour leader tells Sky News that communities are being "diminished" and there are "greater levels of poverty".
Tuesday 9 May 2017 17:47, UK
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has told Sky News that there is "a lot of anger" in the country and "rightly so".
Speaking on the day he officially launched his party's General Election campaign, he said communities were being "diminished" and there were "greater levels of poverty".
He said investment was "going in the wrong place" and "nobody can be happy with the level of poverty and inequality we have in some parts of Britain".
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Labour has pledged to increase income tax for people earning more than £80,000 if elected.
Mr Corbyn told Sky's Political Editor Faisal Islam: "It's about fairness and taxation. We're not proposing to raise tax on low and middle income earners. We're not proposing to raise VAT or national insurance."
The Labour leader hit out at business executives who put their money in tax havens or evade tax, adding: "We don't think it's fair. We don't think it's right."
His party is lagging behind the Conservatives in the opinion polls but Mr Corbyn said he visualised the election of a Labour government next month.
He said it would "inspire generations of young people to get something good in our society".
Mr Corbyn also wanted to "help frame a society in which we don't have so much isolation amongst the elderly and such massive divisions between the wealthy and the poor".
On Brexit, he said he wanted tariff-free access to the market in Europe and criticised the Prime Minister for "threatening" EU leaders.
He said: "If we end up, as Theresa May, has threatened, with no agreement with the EU, suddenly there is a tariff war around every product this country produces."
, Mr Corbyn warned: "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.
"Today I say to the tax cheats, the rip-off bosses and the greedy bankers: enough is enough."
He vowed to transform Britain "with an upgraded economy run for the many, not for the few".
He told supporters that the stakes are high during the General Election - and said the party must convince "sceptical and undecided" voters to back them on 8 June.
Mr Corbyn criticised the Conservatives' record in government - and said the British people should not forget about the bedroom tax, increases to tuition fees, cuts to education budgets and increasing privatisation in the NHS.
He said Labour wanted a "jobs first" Brexit which would safeguard the future of Britain's vital industries - with greater investment in training and skills to make Britons more competitive on the global stage.
"Low pay and insecurity have spread like an epidemic under the Tories," the Labour leader said.
"When we win, the British people win. The nurse, the teacher, the carer, the builder, the office worker - they all win."