Corbyn taunts Johnson over 'failure' to deliver Brexit at election campaign launch

Jeremy Corbyn has used his election campaign launch to taunt the prime minister over his "failure" to deliver on his "do-or-die" promise of Brexit by October 31.

In his first major speech ahead of December's election the Labour leader claimed his party would "get Brexit sorted within six months".

He told supporters that "Boris Johnson promised we would leave the EU" by October 31, "but he has failed," he said, "and that failure is his alone."

He also went after Prime Minister Johnson and the "born-to-rule Conservatives" who he says protect the privileged few" and claimed if Labour wins the election, "we all win".

During the speech in Battersea, London he told supporters that now is the chance for voters to bring "real change" to a "corrupt system".

On Brexit, he pledged to broker a new deal with Brussels and to put it to the people in a referendum.

"We’ll let the people decide whether to leave with a sensible deal or remain - that really isn’t complicated."

Having repeatedly pledged not to extend Brexit beyond Thursday, the PM was set to try to blame Mr Corbyn for putting back the EU withdrawal date to January 31.

In a campaign visit, Mr Johnson was expected to say the Labour leader “refused to allow” the new Brexit deal to pass and accuse him of “more dither, more delay”.

Mr Corbyn went on to attack the Conservatives for their campaigning strategies and decision to hold an election in a "dark and cold December".

“So in this election they’ll fight harder and dirtier than ever before. They’ll throw everything at us because they know we’re not afraid to take them on."

The Labour leader attacked “tax dodgers, bad bosses, big polluters, and billionaire-owned media holding our country back” and used the speech to "call out" people like media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the Duke of Westminster and Mike Ashley.

He asked a room full of excited supporters whose side they are on, to which they responded in unison: "Yours."

"We’re young, we’re old, we’re black, we’re white, we’re straight, we’re gay, we’re women, we’re men, we’re people of all faiths and none, from the North and from the South," he said.

"And when Labour wins, the nurse wins, the pensioner wins, the student wins, the office worker wins, the engineer wins. We all win."

He added: "Whose side are you on? The dodgy landlords, like the Duke of Westminster, Britain’s youngest billionaire, who tried to evict whole blocks of families to make way for luxury apartments?

"Or the millions of tenants in Britain who struggle to pay their rent each month?"

He told supporters "real change is coming" and claimed the forthcoming election "is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform our country".

But Tory party chairman James Cleverly said: “A vote for Labour is not a vote for change.

“It is precisely the opposite – a vote for more delay and uncertainty on Brexit, meaning the Government can’t focus on people’s priorities, like the NHS, schools and crime.”

Labour's shadow justice secretary, who says the election should be about issues away from the EU, admitted that Brexit would be a big issue in the campaign and claimed Labour would be the party to resolve it.

He says the party's plan for Brexit will put the final decision back into the hands of the people and he believes that message will appeal to voters.

But he said: "Brexit and the Brexit crisis created by the Tories will play a large role in this election without a shadow of a doubt, but this election is about so much more."

He added: "This election is about the future of our NHS, about wages, about jobs, about the future of our economy, about inequality in our society."

That's why, he says, he believes "that in this general election campaign we'll have a big conversation across the country and it's going to result in Labour winning this general election".

  • Watch Jeremy Corbyn's speech in full: