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There will be no pacts with other parties in upcoming general election, Corbyn says
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves after speaking at an activists training event at the GLO Centre in Motherwell, Scotland

JEREMY CORBYN insisted today there will be no pacts with any other parties in any forthcoming general election.

Speaking to hundreds of delegates at Unite’s Scottish policy conference in Ayr, the Labour leader reiterated he would be “very happy” to fight a general election once the threat of a no-deal Brexit is completely ruled out.

He said that a no-deal Brexit was “still there as a threat,” adding: “It’s got to be completely removed before we’ll support an election.

“The reality is you’ve got to have no deal completely off the table and that whole threat removed before anything else because of the danger to our economy, to jobs, to trade, to medicine supplies.”

Mr Corbyn said that he hoped Mr Johnson’s deal would be “emphatically” rejected.

And he warned that Mr Johnson really wants a trade deal with Donald Trump and the US, which would be a “one-way agreement.”

He said that Labour opposed the “high-speed examination” of Mr Johnson’s Withdrawal Bill, and argued that Parliament must have a much longer timeframe to consider the implications of his deal and to further inform the public of the dangers of a no-deal Brexit.

He said: “Unless Parliament can reject a deal emphatically — which obviously I hope it does, and which is why we opposed his high-speech examination of his Bill — we want sufficient time.

"Not weeks, just sufficient time — a few more days, weeks maybe — to just look at the details [of Mr Johnson’s deal], because no deal is a real danger to everybody’s jobs.”

Mr Corbyn also pledged that a Labour government elected at the next general election would invest more than £70 billion in Scotland over the first decade of its administration.

He said Labour would “take on the wealthy and powerful” and “deliver the investment that Scotland needs and build a fairer, more equal and just society.”

Mr Corbyn said: “Labour stands for change, the real change that our country needs.

“We will deliver the investment that will transform the Scottish economy, rebuild our communities and public services.

“Labour will not shy away from taking on the wealthy and the powerful, the vested interests that are holding people back.”

Mr Corbyn was in Ayrshire after spending Saturday campaigning in marginal seats Motherwell and Wishaw, and Inverclyde.

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