Jeremy Corbyn says Boris Johnson should resign after crushing Supreme Court defeat
3 min read
Jeremy Corbyn has called on Boris Johnson to resign after he “misled the country” by unlawfully suspending Parliament.
The Labour leader used his conference speech to tell Mr Johnson he was “not fit to be Prime Minister”, after the bombshell ruling by the Supreme Court on prorogation.
He said: “The Prime Minister acted illegally when he tried to shut down opposition to his reckless and disastrous plan to crash out of the European Union without a deal.
But he has failed. He will never shut down our democracy or silence the voices of the people.”
To chants of “Johnson out” by delegates, Mr Corbyn said he should stand down and make himself the shortest serving PM in history, adding “and rightly so”.
“His is a born-to-rule government of the entitled who believe that the rules they set for everyone else don’t apply to them,” the Labour leader said.
Attacking the decision to shutter the House of Common for five weeks, Mr Corbyn said of Mr Johnson: “Conference, he thought he could do whatever he liked just as he always does.
“He thinks he’s above us all. He is part of an elite that disdains democracy. He is not fit to be Prime Minister.”
The Labour leader also defended the party’s Brexit policy, after accusations their plan to try and get their own deal from the EU and then decide which side to back in a second referendum is incoherent.
He said: “Labour will end the Brexit crisis by taking the decision back to the people with the choice of a credible leave deal alongside Remain.
“That’s not complicated. Labour is a democratic party that trusts the people.
“After three and a half years of Tory Brexit failure and division, the only way we can settle this issue and bring people back together is by taking the decision out of the hands of politicians and letting the people decide.”
He added: “So within three months of coming to power a Labour government will secure a sensible deal based on the terms we have long advocated and discussed with the EU trade unions and businesses: a new customs union a close single market relationship and guarantees of rights and protections.
“And within six months of being elected we will put that deal to a public vote alongside remain.
“And as a Labour prime minister I pledge to carry out whatever the people decide.”
Attacking chief executive pay, he listed a series of policies aimed at redistributing wealth, including giving employees a 10% stake in large companies and pay “a dividend of up to £500 a year to every employee”.
He said Labour would also scrap zero-hours contracts, introduce a £10 living wage and “give all workers equal rights from their first day in the job”, and allow flexible working for women experiencing the menopause.
Mr Corbyn also said if he got into power he would use “compulsory licensing to secure generic versions of patented medicines”, and create a new publicly-owned drugs manufacturer to supply cheaper medicines to the NHS.
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