Jeremy Corbyn puts tackling poverty at heart of programme for government

By Jon Vale8th June 2017News EnglandAusterity, Child Poverty, General Election, Government / Politics, News England, Poverty / Austerity

Jeremy Corbyn has said reducing poverty would be at the heart of his Labour government in his final broadcast interview before polling day.

During an interview with the Big Issue, the Labour leader also shared his thoughts on how his cat would deal with life at Downing Street, as well as saying he preferred grime artist Stormzy to Oasis musician Noel Gallagher.

The interview was watched by around 500,000 people live on Facebook, where it was hosted by Unilad.

“For all government departments, we would ensure that policy-making was framed around the issue of poverty reduction,” Mr Corbyn said.

“I’m very keen that we are focused as a government on dealing with poverty and injustice and inequality.

“It’s such a waste of resources and it leads many people to lead unfulfilled lives.”

In the interview, Mr Corbyn appeared to back better teaching of life skills like money management in schools, as well as calling for a “community response to terrorism” rather than turning different groups against each other.

Mr Corbyn said he had a passion to tackle the housing crisis, that it was “unacceptable” for Britain to have empty homes and that Labour would strengthen rights for tenants.

He was also asked about how his cat, El Gato, would fare if Mr Corbyn became prime minister, with Downing Street already having its fair share of feline pets.

“I’ve been asking El Gato about this and I’ve been getting mixed messages,” he said.

“Will he get on with other cats? He’s formed an alliance with a stray that’s come to our house, so they get along fine.

“But they’re also having extremely bad relations with two other cats that have appeared.”

Prime Minister Theresa May has also written for the Big Issue this week, saying she would focus on prevention in dealing with social issues like homelessness.

Mrs May said: “We must instead understand the complex issues that contribute to people becoming homeless in the first place, including domestic abuse, mental illness, problem debt and housing insecurity, and tackle them early to prevent people from suffering further and becoming harder to help.”