Discard Leave, Remain labels, Corbyn tells voters

Jeremy Corbyn has again rebuffed the demands of many of his own activists for Labour to become the party of Remain at the European elections later this month, insisting he will stand on the “common ground”.Launching his party’s manifesto for the European elections in Chatham, Kent, Corbyn said people should resist being defined simply as Leavers or Remainers.“We could allow ourselves to be defined only as ‘Remainers’ or ‘Leavers’ –  labels that meant nothing to us only a few years ago. But where would that take us? Who wants to live in a country stuck in this endless loop?” he asked.In his speech to an audience of local activists at Kent University’s Medway campus, he sought to shift the debate beyond Brexit, and return to some of the themes that played well for Labour during the 2017 general election campaign, including public spending cuts and workers’ rights.“Some people seem to look at the issue the wrong way round – they seem to think the first question is Leave or Remain, as if that is an end in itself. I think they’re wrong. The first question is what kind of society do we want to be?”“The real divide in our country is not how people voted in the EU referendum. The real divide is between the many and the few,” he said.Unlike the resurgent Liberal Democrats, Corbyn repeatedly stressed during his speech and in the Q+A session afterwards that Labour will not pick a side.As democratic socialists, he said, Labour could not ignore the result of the 2016 referendum. “We‘re not trying to win the votes of just Leavers, or just Remainers. Instead, we’re reaching out to everyone,” he said.Chatham is in the south east region for the European elections; but Corbyn was introduced by one of the party’s candidates in Scotland, Jayne Baxter.The message on the cover of Labour leaflets posted to households this week urges the public to “vote Labour and tell the Tories you are fed up with their divisive austerity policies and incompetent government”.The Labour group on Medway council made gains at last week’s local elections, though the Conservatives remained in control, and Labour is taking its message to areas in which it would hope to translate that into seats at a general election.Labour held the the Chatham and Aylesford constituency from 1997 to 2010, when it was won by the Conservative former sports minister Tracey Crouch, who secured a majority of more than 10,000 in 2017.Talks with the government over a potential cross-party Brexit deal broke up on Wednesday night, with Labour striking a markedly more positive tone than in recent days.But Corbyn played down the prospects of an early breakthrough, saying: “It’s actually quite difficult negotiating with a disintegrating government, with Cabinet ministers jockeying for position. (But) it is in the country’s interests to get this sorted, one way or the other.”