LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn gave a boost to Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt and business secretary Sajid Javid during his speech at the CBI Annual Conference yesterday when he said the Tories were moving closer to Labour.
He told big business leaders ‘Our manifesto, “For the Many Not the Few”, set out a fully costed programme to build an economy which gives everyone the chance of a secure and fulfilling life. Since the General Election in June the political establishment has finally begun to catch up. Calls to end austerity now come from all sides in parliament.
‘Senior cabinet members are taking their lead from Labour and pushing for more radical solutions to the housing and student debt crises. Sajid Javid advocates £50 billion of borrowing for investment in housing. Jeremy Hunt has broken ranks and called for an end to the public sector pay cap.
‘Few would have predicted this a year ago. And of course we’ve yet to see if they’ve convinced the Chancellor. It is a measure of the essential pragmatism of business people that so many have changed their outlook too. Business people across the country have expressed to me a growing awareness, and acceptance, that things need to change.’
He added that Labour agreed with business: ‘We have common ground on the need for transitional arrangements to be agreed immediately so that businesses know they won’t face a cliff-edge Brexit when the two year negotiating period is up. . . I promise you today between now and March 2019, we will use every opportunity we can find to put pressure on the Government to do the same.’
He went on to add about tax policy: ‘The shocking revelations from the Paradise Papers today, yet again of widespread tax avoidance and evasion on an industrial scale must lead to decisive action and real change.’
In answering a question as to whether the Queen should apologise for the offshore investments revealed in the Paradise Papers, Corbyn told the CBI conference: ‘Well anyone that is putting money into tax havens in order to avoid taxation in Britain, and obviously investigations have to take place, should do two things – not just apologise for it but also recognise what it does to our society.’
After the meeting was over Corbyn insisted that he was not asking the Queen to apologise, but perhaps her advisers should do so.
