Jeremy Corbyn will declare Labour 'ready for government' in conference speech
Mr Corbyn is still buoyed by the result of the general election and will look to attack the Government over Brexit.
Wednesday 27 September 2017 06:27, UK
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will use his conference speech to proclaim that "Labour is ready for government".
He will tell delegates in Brighton: "We have become a government-in-waiting. And our message to the country could not be clearer: Labour is ready.
::
"Ready to tackle inequality. Ready to rebuild our NHS... and ready to build a new and progressive relationship with Europe."
It will be his third conference leader's speech, but this one occurs against a radically different backdrop, having asserted his control over the party's decision-making bodies.
He also brandishes an improved mandate after a far better than expected election result with some 12.6 million votes won for his radical manifesto at June's general election.
Mr Corbyn will talk about Brexit, a subject matter for which policy making votes were avoided at this conference. But he will accuse the Government of "self-interested Brexit bungling".
::
He will say: "The Tories are more interested in posturing for personal advantage than in getting the best deal for Britain.
"Never has the national interest been so ill-served on such a vital issue... I have a simple message to the Cabinet: for Britain's sake pull yourself together or make way."
Mr Corbyn will say the Grenfell fire disaster is a monument to a "more brutal and less caring" society with "disdain for the powerless and the poor", which was "an entirely avoidable human disaster" that should "haunt all politicians".
And he will call on Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi to "end the violence" against Rohingya in Myanamar.
Looking to the future, Mr Corbyn will stress the challenges of robotics and automation which could make much work redundant.
He will call it a "threat in the hands of the greedy, but an opportunity if managed in the interest of society as a whole".
Labour's National Education Service will help retrain and reskill millions of workers whose jobs are lost to robots, he will argue.
The penultimate day of conference was overshadowed by the fact that the shadow chancellor had suggested that he had looked at scenarios including there being a run on the pound in the event of a Labour election victory.
But the conference has seen huge support among Labour activists for Mr Corbyn's agenda and a sidelining of MPs, as delegates have taken centre stage.
Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Mr Corbyn was asked if he was made deeply uncomfortable by the emerging cult of personality about him among his activists.
He replied: "I often think it's deeply embarrassing. It's not my wish."