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With green jobs, UK's Labour pursues 'radical' plan for power

[September 26, 2018] By Elizabeth Piper

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will promise on Wednesday to "kickstart a green jobs revolution" by fostering investment in housing, wind and solar energy to bring jobs "to communities held back for too long".

On the final day of his party's annual conference, Corbyn will make a direct bid for the support of those Britons outside the capital who voted to exit the European Union, often in frustration at feeling left behind by a London-based elite.

As part of what he called his "radical plan to rebuild and transform Britain", Corbyn will say a Labour government will create more than 400,000 skilled jobs nationwide by investing in technologies to cut net carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2030, and zero by 2050.

Britain is not due another election until 2022, but Labour is already preparing for a snap vote.

Despite her denials, few are ruling out an early election after Prime Minister Theresa May's already precarious position was further weakened last week when her Brexit proposal, already unpopular in her Conservative Party, was rebuffed by the EU.

Corbyn will take aim at the "greed-is-good, deregulated financial capitalism" that led to the 2008 financial crisis, saying politicians, including in his own party, had failed to make "essential changes to a broken economic system" and instead propped up a system that "led to the crash in the first place".

"That's why Labour is offering a radical plan to rebuild and transform Britain," he will say, according to excerpts of his speech. "Labour will kickstart a green jobs revolution."

Corbyn and his team of so-called shadow ministers have peppered their conference with policy announcements, trying to show that they are ready for the long term. The green jobs plan would cover two terms in government.

READY FOR GOVERNMENT?

With announcements ranging from handing workers shares in companies to expanding free universal childcare, Labour has wanted to showcase their planning for an election.

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Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell, arrive at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Britain, September 26, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble

But the governing Conservative Party, running almost neck and neck with the opposition party in opinion polls, accused Labour of making "unfunded" promises.

"This is the 37th unfunded promise Labour have made since the last election," said Claire Perry, minister for energy and clean growth. "Labour's ideas have all failed before and would leave the country struggling with more debt, more waste and ordinary working people paying for it - just like last time."

Corbyn's message of being ready for government has also been overshadowed by disputes over Brexit, Britain's biggest trade and foreign policy shift in more than 40 years, after party members pushed for a second referendum on EU membership.

Corbyn, a veteran eurosceptic, accepted the motion, but on Tuesday sidestepped questions over which way he would vote in a second referendum and seemed to cast doubt over whether it would happen.

"We will challenge this government. If they don't meet our six tests (for any Brexit deal), we will vote against it, and then we will take it from there," he said in a television interview.

Some Labour members say, Brexit is a sideshow for Corbyn, and he would much prefer to concentrate on Labour's manifesto, detailing how, if in government, the party would spend its 250 billion pound National Transformation Fund on the economy.

"There is no bigger threat facing humanity than climate change. We must lead by example," Corbyn will say. "It needs a government committed to investing in renewables, in jobs and in training."

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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