‘Nothing half-hearted’ about Labour EU campaign says Corbyn
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn admits that he has had his doubts about the EU in the past, but insists he and his party are fully behind the campaign to stay in Europe ahead of the 23 June referendum.
The Labour leader used his first major speech on Europe to outline what he said were the benefits for social justice, the environment and workers’ rights that flowed from being an EU member country.
Mr Corbyn conceded that, over the years, he had been critical of EU shortcomings, and said Europe still needed to change, but insisted that such change could only come by working with allies within Europe.
He went on: “We have had a very big debate within the party and within the trade unions. Overwhelmingly, the Labour Party and the trade unions have come to the view that they want to campaign for a social, just Europe to protect the workers’ rights that we’ve got, to extend them and extend that degree of justice.
“That is the position we have reached. That is the position that has been adopted by the party. That is the party that I lead and that is the position I am putting forward.”
He rejected the idea that he was still half-hearted about the issue of Europe, saying “I have attended a number of meetings of the Party of European Socialists, I have had lengthy conversations with prime ministers and party leaders all across Europe on the social justice case, the environmental case, the issues of climate change, trade and steel and all those issues.
“I have made numerous speeches on all these subjects. There is nothing half-hearted about what we are doing.”
Steel crisis
The Labour leader criticised the Conservative government over the steel crisis, accusing it of failing to act within EU rules to protect the UK steel industry.
He rejected the argument of the Leave campaign, that the EU had made the steel crisis worse, saying “if it’s the EU that’s the problem, how is it that Germany, France and Spain have done much better to protect their steel industries?”
