Webchat with Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, Tuesday 30 May at midday

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello,

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with the leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday 30 May at midday.

Jeremy has been MP for Islington North since 1983, and has been Labour leader since 2015, having been re-elected when Owen Smith stood against him in 2016. Labour’s manifesto for the election on June 8 proposes ‘a Brexit deal that puts our economy and living standards first’, tax rises for the top 5% of earners, the renationalisation of the railways, free school meals for all primary pupils, the abolition of university tuition fees, and a £250 billion investment fund for infrastructure and the economy.

Please do join the chat on Tuesday at midday, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance. Please do share the webchat on social - the more, the merrier!

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question each, follow-ups if there’s time and please keep it civil .

(As we approach the General Election we will endeavour to offer you a balanced diet of webchats with politicians from different parties. More announcements coming soon.)

Thanks
MNHQ

Hi Jeremy I am labour through and through can you tell me have you any plans for 16 to 18yr olds as they dont seem to exist unless they are goung to college or
university where i live lots of young boys hang around with nothing to do and some are starting to smoke dope have you anything to offer them

Everyone talks about police officer numbers but what are you going to do to increase police support staff? My husband is a csi - yesterday there were 3 csis to cover a whole county and more than40 cases to cover, including serious crime and assault.

Will you be wearing lucky underwear on election night?

Genuine question.

If you get into power what will be done about private companies brought in to run NHS services such as virgin care?

Hi Jeremy,

The Tories give "30 hours free childcare" from September, but as a childcare professional, I can tell you, this isn't free, it's just funded at a lower rate than nurseries and childminders usually charge. As a result, many settings can't afford to offer it, and indeed many have been forced to close, so it's not true that every child gets 15 or 30 hours free childcare.

What will labour do differently to make sure it's funded properly?

Hi Jeremy

Lifelong Labour supporter here and very excited you're here on mumsnet.com! Thank you

I want to ask what you plan to do for the many thousands of disabled people who have lost their PIP enhanced rate and thus their motability cars meaning they cannot go to work or out at all, and if you will be likely to change pip descriptors to be more inclusive of all disabilities so people like my friend with lung disease, colitis and several other conditions won't lose their benefit, and people like me on a lifelong dla award due to degenerative chronic illness won't have to go through face to face assessments with private companies who have targets to meet to bring down the numbers on pip and esa - in fact, will you be keeping on Atos, Capita etc all to deliver these assessments which have brought so much pain and indignity to so many sick and disabled people?

Thanks you and good luck!

Btw, I'm voting labour and you did so well last night

is it true council tax is increasing by more than double and is called garden tax?

Dear Mr Corbyn,

Given Yvette Cooper's previous excellent work and extensive experience at liaising with our Police, can you please consider making Ms Cooper Home Secretary should Labour win the election?

It makes no sense to me to keep Diane Abbott as (Shadow) Home Sec, given her unfortunate lack of knowledge of Policing matters and costs. Many Rank and File officers have no confidence that Ms Abbott will fight for a long deserved payrise and a complete reversal of the budget cuts. As Ms Cooper has attended several PolFed conferences and has built up a very good relationship with Police, she is undoubtedly the best candidate for Home Secretary.

Many thanks.

Here on MN there has been a lot of debate about the recent changes to bereavement benefits. Particularly the change that abolished Widowed Parent Allowance until the youngest child of the family becomes an adult, based on the amount of NI the late parent paid. It is now a smaller amount of money for only 18 months - a ridiculously pitiful amount of time. After then, UC will kick in and there will be sanctions if the parent can't work.

Would Labour reverse this policy if you become Prime Minister?

(I'm a floating voter who has decided never to vote Tory again, based on the above, and what they are doing to the NHS. I'm as yet unsure whether to vote Labour or Lib Dem.)

Thank you for your time.

Please can you tell us who would be leading the Brexit negotiations which begin very soon after the election. Alan Johnson described you as incompetent and I have yet to see anyone credible in your shadow cabinet. As all your plans will be inoperable if we don't get the right exit terms surely this is of prime consideration.

Hi Jeremy. I'd like to know what you think of tactical voting. Should we vote Labour of we agree with their policies, or if there is a chance of kicking the Tories out by voting Lib Dem, should we do that?

Dear Jeremy

Charities say the Lobbying Act aka 'gag law' stops them speaking out on Tory social care plans, and other issues.

Will a Labour government repeal the Lobbying Act?

I am a floating voter, have voted both Tory and Labour in the past.I was behind TM thinking if we are going to brexit, she seemed a sensible and strong person to negotiate us through it. Then she called the election and I started to listen to you more and I like what I hear. I have 2 teenage daughters, one about to start A levels with a view to Uni.I am over the moon about tuition fees being scrapped. It will be hard enough for them to get on the property ladder let alone start adult life with huge debt.

Dear Mr Corbyn, it looks like I may be a little late, now I was actually going to vote Theresa May as I think you have a magic money tree, and I have been a lifelong Labour supporter, anyway what I want to know is if you lose the election are you going to resign? so all us oldies that voted Labour can do so again.

Hi Jeremy, I'm a Labour member who voted against you twice during the leadership elections. I have been won over during the election campaign and I'm now hopeful we can get a hung parliament. Can you clarify which parties you would enter coalition talks with? What will Labour's policy lines in the sand be for coalition?

Hello Jeremy!

Sending my support. I will be voting for Labour. Good luck!

Welcome Jeremy. I am a junior doctor and I think I can speak for my colleagues when I say that our morale is at an all time low. We love the NHS and want to protect it.

We know that Jeremy Hunt has written a book about how to privatise the NHS. As Noam Chomsky says, "That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital."

How are you going to turn things around in the NHS? How will you make doctors and nurses feel valued again?

For your info, I qualified two years ago and I still get paid less than my cleaner.

Happydays, Keir Starmer would be leading on Brexit. If you're not impressed by him and can't see that he is a better candidate for the role than David Davis then I'm not sure what you're looking for.

Hello Jeremy

(1) Intergenerational inequality:
Please can you explain why you are hell bent on giving subsidies to the rich, whether they are for example:

• pensioners (non means tested winter fuel allowance, not using the value of assets built up eg. expensive houses)
• students: tuition fees (children who go to schools like Seamus Milne's - Winchester College, fees £35,000 pa, won't pay). Why are you funding the top 50% of children to go to university but not offering anything for those that don't go to university? Can universities really keep the number of places at current levels without charging fees - the experience of Scotland would suggest not.

(2) Making business uncompetitive:
How will you fill the hole in your costings for your spending plans, as identified by the IFS (£9bn in year 1 and rising)? What are your plans when many businesses relocate as the impact of Brexit and your tax rises, pay increase and increased red tape make the UK uncompetitive? How much do you expect prices and inflation (hence interest rates) to rise, as businesses compensate for the increase in costs you intend to impose, in order to maintain their profitability? Won't you have to raise taxes on everyone to raise serious sums of money when CT and higher rate IT receipts are not what you expect?

(3) Renationalisation costings:
How are you funding your £250,000,000,000 renationalisation plans? Do you expect interest rates to stay so low when you need to raise such a huge amount of additional funds - are the increased interest payments included in your forecasts for year on year spending ? How big is the subsidy you intend to give to renationalised industries in order to reduce prices to consumers - how is this paid for?

Thank you.

Also Mr Corbyn when are you getting rid of Dianne Abbot? shes a liability? Also sorry, with Theresa May making so many cuts do you think this maybe why the Manchester bomber was not being watched as closeley as he should have been?

Why has Keir Starmer not been heard during this election campaign, in fact why have you not talked about your Brexit plans, yet Diane Abbott has been bought out - only to show how incompetent she is at the job - I agree with the PP above that Yvette Cooper is the only credible person to be in the HO role for your party. Why wouldn't she serve in the Shadow Cabinet?

Hello Jeremy. I am a member of the labour party, and am pleased to be part of the campaigning for this election.
I have the misfortune to live in an area where Virgincare have recently taken over NHS children's services. My son is disabled, in the last year and a half he has had a change of physio, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist, orthotist, dietician and developmental paediatrician (his consultant paediatrician has requested he stay with him) - some of these professionals are people he has seen since he was 10 months old (he is nearly 7).
The change has not been good; services are now spread in different areas (the furthest an hour away...I don't drive!), waiting times have lengthened - my son's splints have fallen apart in the months of waiting for an appointment, therapists are not working cohesively, and we have had to be re referred to services casing more delay and distress to my son.
He, however is one of the lucky one. I have friends whose children with diagnosed additional needs have been discharged from the system, as their needs ate not considered severe enough. In my role as a 1-1 for preschool children with disabilities I have seen the criteria change for referrals, meaning children with needs such as speech and language are unable to access support so that they can start school with support in place - these are children with difficulties with understanding or speech delays and disorder. We have also seen children unable to access essential equipment that will enable them to access preschool education.
I would like to know, in light of funding cuts and Virgincare now running 400+ NHS services, how Labour can stop this erosion of the NHS that is happening under our noses.
The picture is of my son's splints which he is still having to wear - too small, held together with gaffer tape and Velcro. He has had to wait since last year for a new pair (finally arriving at the end of June) - when I asked if things could be done quicker because he is getting callouses, we were told that unless his 'skin was breaking down' they could of be done quicker.

How do you intend to manage Brexit, given that what has happened in the past year is the plummet in Britain's international standing?
How do you intend to reassure the EU that we will still be an ally and trading partner with them as the Brexit process continues?
WIll you ensure the safeguarding of freedom of motion and the free flow of ideas between Britain and Europe, given that we are already suffering the brain drain of EU nationals leaving Britain?

Mr. Corbyn,
I would bet real money that you'll ignore this...
I am Jewish and in the 92% who wouldn't vote for you if you ran against a potted fern.
How can you justify your years of support for Hamas and Hezbollah and the IRA? Laying wreaths at the graves of murderers and sharing platforms with antisemites, marching with and chairing organisations with people who chant 'Jews to the gas'?
You can't deny it because it's all on film ant backed up by your articles in hard left magazines and newspapers.
Peacemakers speak to both sides. Ever met with Israeli settlers? Unionists? The victims of Islamic terror? No, you have not?
Why should the Jewish community be anything other than terrified of you and your fellow travellers McDonnel and Abbott?