While Brexit is at the forefront of the Conservative government’s agenda currently, the increasing popularity of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not be going unnoticed by the government.
The staunch Socialist is popular among younger voters and the party made strong progress in a general election in June, gaining 32 seats in parliament. The left-wing Corbyn has a way to go to convince many British voters and businesses that the country and its economy would be safe in his hands, however.
Corbyn is expected to try to assuage concerns of businesses when speaking at the CBI conference on Monday, telling the audience that there is “common ground” between business and Labour to deliver “big changes” to the British economy.
“Common ground on Brexit, common ground on investment, training and industrial strategy, and a government that embraces its responsibilities and carries them out for the common good. That’s what Labour offers you,” he is expected to say.
He will add that Britain’s economic model needs to change, advocating “an economy for the many.”
“We all know an economic model that allows a few to grow very rich while the majority face falling incomes and rising indebtedness, that leaves too many people in unfulfilling and insecure work, that is overly reliant on one sector in one region of our country, is neither stable nor sustainable,” he will tell the conference.
This will mean making some “big changes,” he will say, to tackle Britain’s problems of “low investment, low productivity and low pay.” Like the Conservatives, Labour advocate an infrastructure investment program using what they call a “National Transformation Fund” that Corbyn will say would “reverse years of under-investment in the regions, investing in transport, energy and digital infrastructure right across the country.”
