Jeremy Corbyn addresses St Leonards crowd

On his first day of national campaigning since the general election result, the Labour leader chose Hastings, one of the most marginal constituencies in the country where Conservative Home Secretary Amber Rudd only clung on to her seat.

The spoke to a large gathering crowd at Warrior Square Gardens shortly after 11am, Saturday, July 1.

Jeremy Corbyn said: “I am proud to be here today in Hastings where you came within a whisker - 346 votes - of painting the town red and electing Peter Chowney as a Labour MP.

“Labour gained seats across the country at the last general election, in every region and nation of Britain.

“Labour is no longer just the official opposition, we are a government in waiting.

“It is not good enough for politicians – including your MP the Home Secretary – to praise the police, firefighters and NHS staff when they respond to horrific incidents like the recent terrorist attacks or the Grenfell Tower fire, and then vote to make them worse off again year after year.

“This is what happened in parliament this week.

“Nurses in our hospitals have had a real terms pay cut of 14 percent under this government and some are even having to use food banks.

“Yet the government refused to back our calls to lift the public sector pay cap and recruit more police and firefighters.

“You can’t keep our communities safe on the cheap. When you cut over 20,000 police officers, over 11,000 firefighters, and leave our hospitals in record deficit having to cut back on services.

“We have to change our economic system so that it works for the many, not just a few.”

The Labour Party’s shadow cabinet members were out in force in other areas of the counrty today promoting the party’s national campaign claiming the Tory government under Theresa May ‘has #NoMandate’.

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