Corbyn: Our schools and the NHS are at stake in this election
Jeremy Corbyn has launched an attack on the Tories as he tries to shift his campaign focus onto schools and the NHS.
The Labour leader claimed that both will be at risk if the Conservatives win the election on 8 June with longer waiting lists and children "crammed" into overcrowded classrooms.
In a speech in London, Mr Corbyn said that labour will "cut class sizes not cut schools" and "take a million people off the NHS waiting lists not add millions more".
"The state that the Conservatives have left our NHS and our children's schools in is anything but strong and stable," he said.
"Over the past seven years, they have starved the public services we rely on of resources, because at every turn, the Conservatives have chosen tax giveaways for the few over public services for the many.
"Patients are suffering ever-longer waits and overcrowded wards, those who need care have been left without it. A&E units and whole hospitals are threatened with closure.
"Children are crammed into overcrowded and crumbling classrooms. Schools are sending home begging letters to the parents. It has to change," he said.
The Labour leader said that "if they [Conservatives] carry on as they are now then by 2022 there could be 5.5 million people on the NHS England's waiting list".
Mr Corbyn also claimed that 1.5 million older and vulnerable people will not have their care needs met.
In addition he said that 650,000 children will be "crammed" into primary school classes larger than 30 pupils, and families will be nearly £450 worse off per child as a result of Tory plans to scrap free school meals for 1.7 million children.
For the Tories, Work and Pension Secretary Damian Green accused Mr Corbyn of using "made up numbers" and sought to shift attention back to the looming Brexit talks.
"Brexit negotiations start 11 days after people vote and are crucial to our economic security and the future of public services," he said.
"Made-up numbers from Corbyn cannot hide the fact he's not up to the job of getting the deal we need."
But the Labour leader also faced fresh questions about his approach to immigration as a Labour discussion document indicated the party could open up routes for unskilled foreign workers to come to the UK.
Labour played down these reports insisting the document leaked to the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail was a discussion paper and "not a statement of Labour policy".
The Liberal Democrats will also seek to put pressure on Mrs May, claiming that her plan to axe free school meals for infants in England will put children's health at risk.
"Theresa May is not only risking the health of some of our youngest children, but she will also create terrible inequality in the classroom," former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said as the party launched a poster campaign on the issue in London.
Also on the attack on Wednesday was Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt who claimed Jeremy Corbyn would be "totally incapable" of protecting jobs and economic growth in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.
Mr Hunt argued that a "good Brexit" would see the economy go from strength to strength and it was "absolutely vital" for the NHS that happened.
He said the government had been able to put extra money into the NHS in the last three years because in the last seven years the economy had created 2.8 million jobs.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "You fund public services through the taxes that are paid by people in work, and the question for us looking forward is, in these Brexit negotiations, who is going to protect those jobs, lock in that economic growth?
"Is it a strong Theresa May who is doing that or is it going to be Jeremy Corbyn who I'm afraid many people think would be totally incapable of doing that job," he said.