UK’s new Labour leader fires up faithful in first speech

He smiled, he poked fun at himself, he wore a tie and even told a few jokes. British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn used his first conference speech — a nationally televised event Tuesday — to try to soften his image as a radical left-winger who will dash the party’s electoral hopes by bringing back discredited policies from the past. The unconventional 66-year-old leader did differentiate himself from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives by accusing the government of favouring the rich and squandering the country’s weight in global affairs by offering “fawning support” to foreign governments which crush democratic rights.

Don’t accept injustice, stand up against prejudice. Let us build a kinder politics, a more caring society together. Let us put our values, the people’s values, back into politics.

Jeremy Corbyn

In a speech that some said was short on policy ideas, one-time outsider played to his supporters by saying he wanted to usher in a new, kinder politics and to boost investment in the economy so more people could thrive. Corbyn, who had offended some by declining to sing the national anthem at a recent memorial service, emphasized his patriotism, proclaiming his love of Britain and British values. And he took a few jabs at the unrelenting hostility he has raced from some in British’s rambunctious tabloid press, pointing out that one paper had gone so far as to say Corbyn was welcoming the possibility that mankind would be wiped out by an approaching asteroid.

Labour will be challenging austerity, it will be unapologetic about reforming our economy to challenge inequality and to protect workers better.

Jeremy Corbyn

Politics Corbyn