Jeremy Corbyn campaigns at General Election rally in Filton

2 November 2019, 21:45

By Sylvia DeLuca

Jeremy Corbyn spent Saturday campaigning and discussing his proposals for Brexit in Swindon, Filton, Bradley Stoke, and Gloucester, which are currently Conservative seats.

At a rally in Filton, Jeremy Corbyn said he knew "full well" that the Brexit debate can become "divisive, indeed poisonous and toxic on some occasions."

The Labour leader said: "I simply say this, people who voted Remain or Leave in 2016. If you're up against it and on universal credit and in the private rented sector on a zero hours contract job and you voted Leave - that's your choice.

"If you're in exactly the same condition in a different part of the country and you voted Remain, your needs are both the same. A Labour government that will invest in your future."

Mr Corbyn said his and his party's "whole purpose" has been "to bring people together".

"The easy thing to do would be to go one way or another and forget the rest. That's what the Lib Dems have done, that what the Tories have done, that's what the Brexit party does and so on."

He said he would within three months rapidly negotiate "an arrangement with the EU" which would be a customs union.

He also said within six months he would hold a referendum "between that offer and Remain" saying that he believes that is the most "sensible way of going forward and approaching this".

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a rally in Filton, Bristol while on the general election campaign
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a rally in Filton, Bristol while on the general election campaign. Picture: PA
Jeremy Corbyn with North Swindon Parliamentary candidate Kate Linnegar during a rally while on the campaign trail in Swindon
Jeremy Corbyn with North Swindon Parliamentary candidate Kate Linnegar during a rally while on the campaign trail in Swindon. Picture: PA

Whilst campaigning in both north and south Swindon, the Labour leader put the focus on his concerns about the NHS under a Conservative government.

He said: "When Trump and the US ambassador and others have said repeatedly that any trade deal with Britain would require their access to the British healthcare market, as they call it, I'm deeply, deeply suspicious."

At a second rally in Bristol, he told a crowd "austerity was a political choice".

He added: "A political choice that's almost 10 years on that's led to an ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest."