Britain’s main opposition Labour Party promised on Thursday to radically expand public spending and State ownership if it wins the December 12 election, trying to close an opinion-poll gap with the governing Conservatives.
The party said a Labour government would nationalise Britain’s railways, energy utilities and postal system, cap rents, hike the minimum wage and abolish university tuition fees.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the platform a “manifesto of hope.” Critics called it a pipe dream.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushed for Britain to hold the December election, which is taking place more than two years early, in hopes winning a majority and breaking Britain’s political impasse over Brexit. All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs.
Labour’s ambitious manifesto is an attempt to shift the focus of the campaign from Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union and onto the country’s fraying social fabric, stressed after a decade of austerity measures under Conservative-led governments.
The platform revives policies of nationalisation and central government control that have been jettisoned since the 1980s.
