As ordinary people continue to suffer, Corbyn pledges to end influence of ‘big donors’ on politics

Jeremy Corbyn


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Poverty among elderly people in Tory Britain is currently sky high. But as ordinary citizens continue to suffer, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has announced that his party is working on a “comprehensive plan to stop big money buying up our democracy, and to empower people and communities”.

Labour pledges to ban political contributions from tax avoiders

Speaking at a rally in Bolton on 17 August, Corbyn said:

Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party are captured by big donors, who are corrupting democracy.

And he insisted:

We have to stop the influx of big money into politics. Politics should work for the millions, not the millionaires.

He continued by stressing:

We are funded by workers through their trade unions and small donations, averaging just £22 in the last general election.

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That’s why we will be able to drive big money out of our democracy….

So today, I’m announcing that we will ban donations or loans to political parties from people who are not registered for tax in the UK, so are not contributing to our public services and infrastructure.

Tories serve the rich and leave the poor behind

On 18 August, the Observer quoted University of Oxford professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus talking about “relatively high severe poverty rates among the elderly” in the UK. He also said:

The lowest poverty rates among older people are found in the relatively generous Dutch basic pensions and Nordic welfare states, while the UK, but also Ireland and Switzerland, with basic old-age security, had the highest poverty rates.

Meanwhile, a thinktank chaired by Iain Duncan Smith is calling for further increases in the pension age. According to the Mirror, the right–wing Centre for Social Justice “proposes raising the eligible age to 70 by 2028 and 75 by 2035”. And as some people pointed out, this would mean people in some areas of the UK would die before collecting their pensions:

Get big money out of politics

Time after time, we see the Conservative Party serving the rich and powerful while leaving ordinary people to suffer. And when it’s the wealthy who prop the Tories up, that’s no surprise. Labour, meanwhile, is “funded by workers” – and it has its biggest membership since the 1970s.

Corbyn’s pledge to “stop the influx of big money into politics” could see a radical shift in British politics. And for all the ordinary people who continue to suffer under Tory rule, that couldn’t come soon enough.

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