Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jeremy Corbyn: "I don't play by the establishment's rules"

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to "overturn the rigged system" by putting power and wealth back in the hands of "the people".

In his first major general election speech, he said 8 June's poll was not a "foregone conclusion" and Labour could defy the "Establishment experts".

He also said Labour would not back a second EU referendum.

Theresa May said the election was about ensuring "strong and stable leadership" for the UK.

It was also about strengthening the government's Brexit negotiating hand, she said.

The PM is hoping to convert the Tories' double digit poll lead into a bigger Commons majority.

Her decision to hold a general election - after previously insisting she would wait until 2020 - took her rivals and many in her own party by surprise.

Mr Corbyn could have blocked it in Parliament but instead ordered his MPs to back the snap poll in a Commons vote on Wednesday.

After his speech, the Labour leader was asked to rule out backing a second EU referendum - replying that he respected the result but that the UK had to have continued access to the EU single market and should not "tear up the workers' rights agenda, the environmental protection agenda, or any human rights agenda".

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell also declined to rule one out, telling the BBC the government should "put the deal to Parliament and possibly to the country overall".

But asked later, Mr Corbyn's spokesman said: "A second referendum is not our policy and it won't be in our manifesto."

The Conservatives said it was "yet more evidence" of "Labour chaos".

The Labour leader looks set to run an anti-establishment campaign, presenting himself as a champion of the powerless against political and business elites.

He attacked the "morally bankrupt" Conservatives who he said would not stand up to tax avoiders and other members of a "gilded elite," who were extracting wealth "from the pockets of ordinary working people".

Labour would "end this racket" and "overturn the rigged system," he told an audience of Labour supporters in London.

He also said Labour was the only party that would "focus on the kind of country we want to have after Brexit" - dismissing Mrs May's election campaign as an "ego trip about her own failing leadership".

And he insisted all of Labour's policies, including an increase in corporation tax for big business and more money for carers and a £10 an hour minimum wage, were fully costed.

Addressing Labour's poor opinion poll ratings, he said he was given a 200/1 chance of becoming Labour leader in 2015 and he defied those odds.

Assessing Corbyn's speech: By Iain Watson

Image copyright Reuters

Jeremy Corbyn provided two very big clues today to how he will fight the campaign - and for two main reasons.

First, he is opting to have the clearest dividing lines between government and opposition in more than three decades - ever since Labour pledged to scrap nuclear weapons and leave the EU in 1983.

He suggested the Conservatives were "morally bankrupt" and attacked the elites.

But he is also drawing a clear line between his leadership and his party's New Labour past.

He didn't just attack the "fat cats" and the "tax dodgers" - he denounced the "wealth extractors" of big business and the City - and took a pop at the media while he was at it.

What was interesting was that uncensored, unvarnished Corbyn was more passionate and fluent than in many of his much-criticised performances in the Commons.

Read more from Iain

Mr Corbyn said: "Much of the media and Establishment are saying this election is a foregone conclusion.

"They think there are rules in politics, which if you don't follow by doffing your cap to powerful people, accepting that things can't really change, then you can't win.

"But of course those people don't want us to win. Because when we win, it's the people, not the powerful, who win."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How the decision to hold a general election on 8 June unfolded

He added: "They say I don't play by the rules - their rules. We can't win, they say, because we don't play their game.

"They're quite right I don't. And a Labour government elected on 8 June won't play by their rules."

He added that those rules "have created a cosy cartel which rigs the system in favour of a few powerful and wealthy individuals and corporations".

Mr Corbyn said: "It's a rigged system set up by the wealth extractors for the wealth extractors."

The Labour leader singled out tycoon Sir Philip Green, who faced heavy criticism over the BHS pensions saga, and Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley in his speech, saying they should be "worried about a Labour government".

Sign-up to get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning</s>British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked the Prime Minister Theresa May after she called a snap general election.

A debate is underway in the House of Commons which will then be followed by a vote.

May is expected to secure the two thirds majority needed which will bring forward the election by three years.

She's insisting that the vote will strengthen Brexit negotiations, but she's ruled out facing party leaders in TV debates.

Something which Corbyn has criticised.</s>
• Jeremy Corbyn promises to take on "the establishment" and "their followers in the media" at his election campaign launch.
• Polls suggest his anti-establishment message has so far failed to cut through with the British public.
• More people believe in ghosts and angels than believe Corbyn will win the election.

LONDON — "The dividing lines in this election could not be clearer," said Jeremy Corbyn as he launched his party's general election campaign in Westminster on Thursday morning.

"It is the establishment versus the people and it is our historic duty to make sure that the people prevail."

Corbyn's speech, which came within 48 hours of Theresa May calling for a snap general election, was dominated by a series of attacks on the "establishment" and "their followers in the media."

"They do not want us to win," he told the audience. "Because when we win it is the people, not the powerful, who win...

"We can’t win, they say, because we don’t play their game."

Such appeals to the public against the establishment are nothing new. Donald Trump became US president largely on the back of almost identical claims to be taking on the "rigged system" in the favour of the people.

Corbyn today delivered his own version of this message effectively. He seemed relaxed and energised and put across his anti-establishment, anti-austerity message, clearly and with discipline.

And unlike Theresa May, who increasingly appears determined to avoid public debate or journalistic scrutiny during this election campaign, Corbyn was willing to answer inconvenient questions from the press with good humour and a light touch, even though he had devoted much of his speech to attacking them.

But while politicians' appeals to "the people" against the establishment can be successful, they are only successful when a large chunk of the people are already with you. Trump won because he successfully managed to marshall existing Republican voters to the polling booths. In Britain, Labour voters have already abandoned the party in their droves.

According to the latest YouGov poll, a third of Labour's 2015 voters are now backing other parties, with Labour a whopping 24 points behind the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, Corbyn's own favourability ratings are in the low teens. Polls suggest there are now more British people who believe in ghosts and angels than there are people who believe in Jeremy Corbyn.

And while Corbyn claimed today that "the establishment"are "worried" about a Corbyn victory, inside Number 10, the actual establishment could not be more relaxed. The Labour leader may believe, as he claimed today, that he will be the next prime minister of Great Britain, but hardly anyone else does. As things stand it is not the "establishment" that are blocking Corbyn's path to Downing Street – it's the British people themselves.

When Corbyn was asked about these universally dire poll ratings today, his supporters in the room jeered the assembled journalists. Corbyn responded by pointing out that he was once 200/1 to become Labour leader.

This statistic went down well in the room. The idea of an underdog defying the odds in order to storm to victory is a romantic one, fondly cherished among Hollywood film directors and the sentimental. Perhaps on this occasion, such a fairy tale will become reality. Perhaps, after all, Corbyn will as he promised today: "prove the establishment experts" wrong.

Maybe he can. Maybe the British public will fundamentally change their opinion about the Labour leader in just a matter of weeks. Maybe his anti-establishment message will suddenly cut through with voters, in time to prevent May from inflicting what currently looks set to be a devastating defeat on Labour. Maybe the "establishment experts" are wrong. Maybe Jeremy Corbyn is the next prime minister of Great Britain.

It's possible. Very occasionally a horse with 200/1 odds, is the first to cross the finishing line. It does sometimes happen. But normally it doesn't. Normally just making it to the end of the race, without first keeling over, is the most the horse can hope for.</s>Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to destroy the elite’s rigged system and hand power back to the people, in a powerful general election speech on Thursday.

Corbyn told an audience that the June 8 election would defy the expectations of the British establishment and bring an end to the old world order as we know it.

“It’s a rigged system set up by the wealth extractors for the wealth extractors. They have created a cosy cartel which rigs the system in favour of a few powerful and wealthy individuals and corporations,” he said to the crowd before they erupted into thunderous applause.

Corbyn warned that he would not play the establishment rules, saying “they say I don’t play by the rules – their rules. We can’t win, they say, because we don’t play their game.They’re quite right I don’t. And a Labour government elected on 8 June won’t play by their rules.”

He added that those rules “have created a cosy cartel which rigs the system in favour of a few powerful and wealthy individuals and corporations”.

Mr Corbyn said: “It’s a rigged system set up by the wealth extractors for the wealth extractors.”

The Labour leader singled out tycoon Sir Philip Green, who faced heavy criticism over the BHS pensions saga, and Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley in his speech, saying they should be “worried about a Labour government”.

The Conservatives seized on Mr Corbyn’s response to the Brexit question after his speech.

Conservative Party chairman Patrick McLoughlin said: “This is yet more evidence of chaos from Jeremy Corbyn and Labour. It shows they can’t provide the strong and stable leadership Britain needs at this serious moment in our history.”

On a campaign visit to Enfield, Mrs May indicated she would stick to the government’s target of reducing net migration – 273,000 according to the latest figures – to below 100,000.

She said it was important to have sustainable migration numbers, adding: “We believe sustainable numbers are the tens of thousands.”</s>LONDON — The conventional wisdom in Westminster is that defeat for Labour in the general election would force Jeremy Corbyn to resign as leader.

But would it really? There are several very good reasons to believe otherwise.

Winning elections is not the main priority for Corbyn supporters

A poll of Labour members earlier this year found that among Corbyn supporters "understanding what it takes to win an election" came in tenth place among a list of 12 priorities for the next Labour leader, as opposed to "moves the party to the left" which came first.

Of course, it's always possible that a heavy defeat in the general election would completely change Labour members' priorities, but as things stand, electoral success is not at the front of their minds.

There is not an obvious successor

Polling of Labour members does show that he has lost some support since his second leadership victory. However, the same polling also shows that there is no obvious candidate to replace him.

Among all Labour members, Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has the most support as a potential replacement, yet there were still only 43% of Labour members who believed he would make a good leader as opposed to the nearly 62% of Labour members who backed Corbyn in last year's leadership contest. And that poll was only for potential candidates should Corbyn stand down. If he refuses to go then there is still nobody in the frame that looks likely to beat him.

The Corbyn project is not finished

Corbyn came very close to standing down during last year's challenge against his leadership but was convinced not to do so by his allies because the project to take over the Labour party had not yet been completed.

The next phase of that project will take place in September whenthe party is due to debate a conference motion to lower the threshold for the number of Labour MPs required to nominate a candidate for the Labour leadership. If Corbyn were to stand down before then, the next leadership race would happen under current rules which make it very hard for a left-leaning candidate to gain the nomination.

Some Corbynsceptic MPs are also working on a plan to return Labour to an electoral college system which would make it even more difficult for a Corbynite MP to become Corbyn's successor. For these reasons, Corbyn could decide to stay on at least until the party conference in September, if not beyond.

A look at the list of Labour MPs whose seats are most under threat at the upcoming general election does not include many names of Corbyn's supporters. For obvious reasons, those most likely to lose their seats against the Tories have been among the Labour leaders' biggest critics over the past two years. Were Labour to suffer a particularly heavy defeat then it would have the side-effect of removing a big chunk of Corbyn's critics. It would also have the effect of lowering the number of MPs that Corbyn's chosen successor would need to gain the nomination, which in turn would increase the incentive for Corbyn to cling on until a change in the leadership rules could be secured.

Corbyn already has his excuses in

Ordinarily, you'd expect the leader of the opposition to accept the brunt of the blame for a heavy defeat. Certainly that has been the case for most previous opposition leaders who have been rejected by the country.

However, Corbyn's support base have long been primed in the belief that his unpopularity is due to everyone but Corbyn himself. Whether it's Labour MPs who launched a "coup" against him last year, or journalists from the "MSM" who are viewed with increasing contempt by Corbyn's supporters and the man himself, the excuses for a heavy Labour defeat have long been written. This would particularly be the case if the final result is closer than current polls suggest.

While an early departure for Corbyn might seem like the most likely outcome of a Labour defeat in June, as things stand it is by no means certain.</s>In his first major general election speech, he said 8 June’s poll was not a “foregone conclusion” and Labour could defy the “Establishment experts”.

A Soviet Labour government would not “play by their rules,” he added.

No more elections once Labour in power

“We would also change election rules once Labour is back in power. Once we win, there will be no more need for elections in Soviet Britain ever again. This election could therefore be the last ever election you see in your lifetime,” Corbyn stressed.

The biased leftist BBC is fully behind Corbyn’s bid to thwart Theresa May’s hope to convert the Tories’ double digit poll lead into a bigger Commons majority.

Corbyn’s Labour government would halt Brexit and stop Theresa May strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations providing the “strong and stable leadership” the country needs.

Instead, the majority Labour Remoaners would seek to fully reverse any notions of leaving the European Union and renegotiate with Brussels on full implementation into stronger EU union.

The Labour leader looks set to run an anti-bourgeoisie campaign, presenting himself as a champion of the powerless proletariat against political and business culture.

He attacked the “morally bankrupt” Conservatives who he said would not stand up to those who seek wealth from hard work and other members of a “gilded elite,” who were extracting wealth “from the unfortunate circumstances of ordinary unemployed and unemployable people” who are the root of Labour’s voting underclass.

Labour would “end this racket” and “overturn the rigged system,” he told an audience of Labour supporters in London.

“Once we’re in power, everyone will be equal in poverty and suffering. There will be no more aspirations or silly things like that,” Comrade Corbyn added.

He also said Labour was the only party that would “focus on the kind of country we want to have” – dismissing Mrs May’s election campaign as an “ego trip about her own failing leadership”.

“Let us look at the other socialist utopia — Venezuela. We want our nation to resemble that South American dream of extreme poverty, anarchy and chaos.”

And he insisted all of Labour’s policies, including an increase in corporation tax for big business and more money for carers and a £10 an hour minimum wage, were fully costed.

“If you own a property today, once we win you will not own that property any more. The owning of all private property is theft from the poorest of our society. For too long, wealth has been allowed to accumulate in private housing. Our collectivist Soviet system will free up wealth from private citizens and all property ownership will transfer to the state, to be redistributed to the populace as needed.”

Addressing Labour’s poor opinion poll ratings, he said he was given a 200/1 chance of becoming Labour leader in 2015 and he defied those odds.

“They have tried to oust me many times, but I as supreme Comrade to the Soviet Labour Marxist social-democratic party have endured and survived many attempts to remove me. They shall not prevail, as they have failed in the past, so today I survive and will survive to lead our great Soviet nation onwards.”

His message was uncompromising. Jeremy Corbyn attacked targets from what he called the ruling bourgeois elite. In doing so, he was trying to recapture the energy and rhetoric which enabled him to win not one, but two, Labour leadership contests.

He said a future Labour government wouldn’t play by the rules and denounced his Conservative opponents as morally bankrupt. Corbyn vowed to end the scourge of capitalism once and for all by ousting all bankers from the City, the media and business people were also in his sights – it created dividing lines not just with his current political opponents but with his party’s New Labour past.

“I will throw these financiers, capitalist scum, business profiteers into the back streets where they will be beaten, stripped of all wealth and seen off.”

Corbyn’s speech received a standing ovation from the invited audience of Labour members and was designed, in part, to motivate newer recruits in particular to campaign over the next seven weeks. It could also shore up the party’s core support.

There were spontaneous shouts of ‘Hail! Comrade Corbyn’ and ‘Bravo! Our Supreme white socked Soviet Comrade!”</s>Jeremy Corbyn will promise to overturn “the wealth extractors’ rigged system” of politics and prove his critics wrong by breaking the rules of the "cosy cartel" that runs British politics.

In a speech launching his general election campaign the Labour leader will say he would not “play by the rules” during the contest, and that his party would “put the interests of the majority first”.

The first speech of the general election campaign comes the day after Mr Corbyn marched Labour MPs through the voting lobbies to support Theresa May’s call for a general election.

The veteran left-winger will position himself as a populist political outsider, and contrast himself with the Conservative party "divide and rule tricks".

“Much of the media and establishment are saying this election is a foregone conclusion,” the Labour leader will tell his audience at Church House in central London.

“They think there are rules in politics, which if you don’t follow by doffing your cap to powerful people, accepting that things can’t really change, then you can’t win.

“But of course those people don’t want us to win. Because when we win, it’s the people, not the powerful, who win. The nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker win. We all win.

Mr Corbyn will continue: “They say I don’t play by the rules – their rules. We can’t win, they say, because we don’t play their game. They’re quite right I don’t. And a Labour Government elected on 8 June won’t play by their rules.

“These rules have created a cosy cartel which rigs the system in favour of a few powerful and wealthy individuals and corporations. It’s a rigged system set up by the wealth extractors for the wealth extractors.

“But things can, and they will, change. And Labour in this election will be part of a movement of the British people to make that change. How dare they crash the economy with their recklessness and greed, and then punish those who had nothing to do with it.

“We will overturn this rigged system. The Conservatives will never do that. Seven years of broken promises show us that: on wages, the deficit, the NHS, our schools, our environment.

“The Conservatives will use all the divide and rule tricks of the Lynton Crosby trade to protect the wealth extractors’ rigged system.

“If I were Southern Rail or Philip Green, I’d be worried about a Labour Government. If I were Mike Ashley or the CEO of a tax avoiding multinational corporation, I’d want to see a Tory victory. Labour is the party that will put the interests of the majority first.”

“That’s why we will prove the establishment experts wrong and change the direction of this election - because the British people know that they are the true wealth creators, held back by a system rigged for the wealth extractors.”

But Mr Corbyn faces an uphill struggle at the election, with poll showing his party at least 20 points behind and in danger of losing dozens of seats.</s>So you think you have political problems with being out of power, Democrats? Are you worried your leader is too unpopular, Republicans? Well, put yourself in the place of U.K. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn or his restive supporters, heading toward a June general election that could spell disaster, and you might not feel so bad.

One of the main reasons Prime Minister Theresa May decided to call this “snap” election was that her opponents are in various degrees of disarray. The Liberal Democrats might make some noise as Britain’s only unambiguously anti-Brexit party. But they are beginning at such a low point after their disastrous showing in the last election, in 2015, that even major gains would keep them marginal. And some feel their current leader, Tim Farron, a conservative evangelical, is a poor match for a party whose membership has always been in the vanguard of social liberalism. The once ominously growing UKIP seems to have lost its reason to live after Brexit. It has in recent months lost its leader, Nigel Farage, who decamped for a transatlantic media career, and its only member of Parliament. And the Scottish Nationalists pretty much maxed out their potential seats in Parliament in 2015 and probably have nowhere to go but down.

But it’s the main opposition party, Labour, whose travails are most comforting to May and her Tories. Polls are now consistently showing a 20-point-plus gap between the Conservative and Labour parties in voter preference, a huge Tory advantage by British standards. One very recent poll showed Corbyn’s net approval rating at minus-34, a number that by comparison makes Donald Trump look like a very popular man.

Corbyn ascended to the top of his party on the basis of strong support from Labour’s left-leaning rank-and-file activists, who play a disproportionate role in party leadership elections. Never a favorite of Labour pols in Parliament, particularly the remnant of Tony Blair’s once-dominant New Labour faction, Corbyn outraged a lot of them by staying semi-neutral on Brexit. After he survived an attempted coup last year that cost him much of his Shadow Cabinet, Corbyn has not impressed too many people with his messaging skills. Like his American counterpart Bernie Sanders, he has a closetful of old radical associations that don’t come off so well in a leadership role. And so, his party is split and seems irresolute.

A poll early this week showed how dire Labour’s leadership crisis has become: Offered a choice of Corbyn or May to lead Britain, only 45 percent of self-identified Labour voters chose Corbyn (16 percent chose May, 30 percent rejected both, 9 percent were unsure). Among voters generally, only 14 percent preferred Corbyn to May; 47 percent preferred May.

Perhaps a general-election campaign will unite Labour and revive Corbyn’s dismal standing. Conversely, some of his intraparty enemies clearly hope the results will force him out of the leadership. There’s even one rumor that May called the election out of fear Corbyn would resign, potentially giving Labour a fresher and more effective leadership. Any way you slice it, Corbyn and his party are on trial as Britain’s short and intense election season progresses.</s>Britain's main opposition leader has launched his election campaign, painting himself as a populist outsider who will overturn a "rigged" political and economic system.

Labour Party chief Jeremy Corbyn says Britain's June 8 election is "the establishment vs. the people."

Labour is trailing Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives in opinion polls, and many within the party think the socialist Corbyn is too left-wing to connect with voters.

But Corbyn echoed anti-establishment sentiment that has upended politics from the United States to France. He said in a speech Thursday that the old rules drawn up by political and economic elites no longer apply.

Corbyn said: "I don't play by their rules, and if a Labour government is elected on the 8th of June I won't play by their rules either."</s>Dawn Butler was left squirming on Radio 4’s PM programme as she struggled to explain how her party would overturn the "rigged democracy" overseen by Theresa May. Speaking to Eddie Mair the Labour Party MP claimed Mrs May had rigged the system by calling for a snap General Election to be held on June 8, resulting in the BBC host demanding a straight answer. Mair said: “Forgive me I’m looking for more detail than saying you’ll make things fairer.” To which Ms Butler replied: “You’re talking about how Jeremy will overturn a rigged system.

“What I’m trying to explain to you is how the Conservative Party and how Theresa May’s Government operates in terms of rigging the system and one example of Theresa May trying to rig the system is her calling this election. And as the Brent Central MP added: “Because what Theresa May has clearly said…”, the BBC host cut her off for dodging the question about how Labour would overturn the “rigged” system. Taking Ms Butler to task, Mair said: “I’m very sorry, you’ve asked me to talk about your policies and I’m very happy to do that, which is really what I’m asking you. “Time and again it’s ‘rigged system, rigged system’, you’re telling me what’s wrong with the Conservatives.

“I’m saying how will Labour, to use Jeremy Corbyn’s phrase in his speech, how will Labour overturn the rigged system? People are looking for detail.” Evading the question once more, Ms Butler replied: “I was trying to give you some detail in terms of how the system is currently rigged and how we will overturn it but to do that you first will need to understand how the rigging takes place. “I was trying to give just one example and that’s the current situation that we’re in, in terms of this General Election.” The cringeworthy interview came after Mr Corbyn on Thursday insisted it was not a “foregone conclusion" that Labour would suffer defeat on June 8 as he vowed to overturn the “rigged” system by putting power back in the hands of the people. Launching his official campaign to become the UK’s next prime minister, he said: “I don’t play by their rules. If Labour is elected we won’t play by their rules either. They are yesterday’s rules.

“It is these rules that have allowed a cosy cartel to rule the system. A rigged system set up by wealth extractors for the wealth extractors. Things can and they will change. Britain needs a Labour Government.” Mr Corbyn also accused multinational firms of “monopolising the wealth that should be shared by each and every one of us in the whole country”. A number of Labour MPs have faced brutal interviews since Mrs May called for a snap election earlier this week. Jack Dromey, the party’s business minister, was left squirming on BBC Daily Politics as Andrew Neil demanded an answer as to who Labour believed were “wealth extractors” in the UK. The grilling came just hours after Emily Thornberry gave a car-crash interview on the Today programme as she dodged all questions on Labour’s general election manifesto.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, positions himself as an "anti-establishment" candidate as he vows to end the "rigged" system.