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  • Labour's manifesto is a manifesto for hope.

  • To cheers from loyal supporters, Jeremy Corbyn has unveiled

  • Labour's manifesto, hoping to win over enough of the less

  • committed members of the British electorate to deprive his

  • Conservative rival Boris Johnson of a parliamentary majority

  • in the December 12 election.

  • The centrepiece is billed as a transformation,

  • promising a Green New Deal, more social housing,

  • and major new funding for the public services.

  • We will make those at the top pay their fair share of tax

  • to help fund the world class public services for you.

  • The proposals for higher taxes at nearly £83bn are much larger

  • than the £48.6bn of extra annual tax and spending

  • in the party's 2017 general election manifesto.

  • Is this package eye-catching or eye-watering?

  • Well, it depends which side you fall of Labour's chosen

  • dividing line between what Mr Corbyn called the wealthy

  • and the powerful, who he said should be ignored,

  • and the rest of a volatile and discontented electorate.

  • Surveys show an extraordinarily high level of the public

  • is still undecided on which party to back at this election.

  • And Labour is betting that many may be hankering for change

  • after nearly a decade of underfunding in the public

  • services and a standard of living that has failed

  • to improve for many.

  • But the Institute for Fiscal Studies

  • has branded the plans colossal and, crucially, not credible.

  • Paul Johnson, of the IFS, called the package 'the biggest set

  • of spending increases, and the biggest set of tax increases,

  • and the biggest set of borrowing increases we've seen

  • in peacetime history.'

  • Meanwhile, businesses will blanch

  • at a hike in corporation tax alongside increases

  • in income and wealth taxes, plus a list of nationalisations,

  • and a windfall tax on the oil industry

  • that may go down badly in Scotland,

  • plus a fudge on protecting freedom of movement

  • for EU citizens after Brexit.

  • We will secure a sensible deal that protects manufacturing

  • and the Good Friday Agreement, and then

  • put it to a public vote alongside the option

  • of remaining in the EU.

  • On this, the greatest decision facing the country for decades

  • - Brexit - Labour maintains its commitment to holding

  • a referendum on its own negotiated exit deal,

  • without making its position clear if that happens.

  • But the pollsters say, helpfully for Labour,

  • that the NHS has now overtaken Brexit as the most pressing

  • issue for voters.

  • It has already offered a way for Mr Corbyn

  • to turn the conversation onto future trade

  • deals between a Tory government and the bogeyman Donald Trump.

  • 'Not for sale', for sale cheered his audience.

  • Attacks on privilege in the form of private schools

  • were, as anticipated, slightly toned down.

  • And again, Labour promised free university tuition for all,

  • plus free broadband, and a lot of other free stuff that could

  • prove tempting unless - and here's that word again -

  • voters see this list as not credible.

  • Rather than, as Mr Corbyn would prefer, as radical.

  • I am so proud to be launching our manifesto tonight.

  • A day before, the Lib Dems had launched their manifesto.

  • And although their moment in the election spotlight was

  • overshadowed by royal scandals, the party were keen

  • to emphasise that remaining in the EU will deliver a £50bn

  • boost to the government's spending powers.

  • These figures were plausible, said the Institute

  • for Fiscal Studies, but only if the Brexit issue was completely

  • and finally settled.

  • And that is a promise that no party in this election

  • can credibly make.

Labour's manifesto is a manifesto for hope.

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