Jeremy Corbyn predicts there will be ANOTHER election this year as he plots to block Theresa May from forming a Government
Labour leader said he is ‘ready any time’ for another vote and claimed he will lay down his own programme of policies after not giving up on becoming PM
JEREMY Corbyn is predicting there will be ANOTHER election this year as he vows to try and block Theresa May’s plan to form a Government this week.
The Labour leader said he is “ready any time” for another vote after Thursday’s shock result and claimed he will lay down his own programme of policies after failing to give up on becoming Prime Minister.
Speaking to the BBC he said: "It is quite possible there will be an election later this year or early next year and that might be a good thing because we cannot go on with a period of great instability.
"We have a programme, we have support and we are ready to fight another election campaign as soon as may be."
Mr Corbyn believes without an outright majority Mrs May's position is vulnerable and he intends to oppose the Queen's Speech and table a "substantial amendment" in an attempt to bring down her administration.
Appearing on the Andrew Marr show, he said: "We're going to put down a substantial amendment to the Queen's Speech which will contain within it the main points of our manifesto, and so we'll invite the House to consider all the issues we put forward which I've mentioned - jobs-first Brexit, mention the issues of young people and austerity, there's many other things."
John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow Chancellor, also said the party would put forward a Queen’s Speech and urge other parties to support it.
MOST READ IN POLITICS:
He said on ITV: “In the interests of the country we are willing to form a government – a minority government – to put forward a programme, a Queen’s speech, as well as an alternative budget and an alternative programme for the Brexit negotiations.
“And then it is up to other parties if they want to support us.”
His buoyant mood came after Labour won 262 seats in the General Election, up from the 232 secured by Ed Miliband in 2015.
But the Conservatives remain the largest party in Parliament, and Mr Corbyn’s plan to vote down Mrs May looks mathematically doomed to fail.
If it was backed by all Labour, SNP, Green, Lib Dem and Plaid Cymru MPs, such a programme would only have the support of 314 – short of a working majority – while the Tories and the DUP command a voting bloc of 328.
But the PM has not fully nailed down an agreement with the Northern Irish party, with its leader Arlen Foster flying to London on Tuesday to firm up a deal.
Mr Corbyn says also said he would reach out to the moderate MPs in his party who had quit the Shadow Cabinet because they didn’t want to serve him.
Hinting at a comeback for big names such as Yvette Cooper and Chuka Umunna he said he is “the most generous person in the world”.
Ms Cooper, who has been one of Mr Corbyn’s fiercest Labour critics, insisted the party is now united behind the leader despite the civil war which raged between him and his MPs last year.
She told Sky News: “Things have changed since then. You can see the contrast between the campaign we had in the [EU] referendum and the campaign we’ve had now.”
But she pointed out the party still fared poorly in many traditional working-class areas, and refused to give all the credit for Labour’s campaign success to the veteran leftie.
Ms Cooper said: “We had that strong result as a result not just of what Jeremy and his team were doing nationally, but also thanks to local candidates.
“There is a bit of a difference between areas such as London and the cities… and places like Mansfield which is a coalfield area in the Midlands, where actually we lost.”
And the former Shadow Home Secretary also refused to say whether or not she would serve on the Labour front benches under Mr Corbyn.