Labour leader will press for amendments to Queen’s speech and says great repeal bill on transition from EU laws is ‘now history’ • General election 2017 - live updates • Support our journalism by becoming a Guardian supporter or making a contribution

Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour will invite parties to defeat the government and vote for Labour’s manifesto in a “substantial amendment” to the Queen’s speech, as well as suggesting the party would also kill off the “great repeal bill”.

“We are ready and able to put forward a serious programme which has great support in this country,” he said, though the Labour leader conceded his party “didn’t win the election”.



“We are going to put down a substantial amendment to the Queen’s speech which will be the main points of our manifesto, so we will invite the House to consider all the issues we’ve put forward – jobs-first Brexit, policies for young people and on austerity,” he said.



Election 2017: 'We cannot continue like this' – Jeremy Corbyn predicts another election this year – live Read more

Corbyn said the great repeal bill, designed to transfer EU law into British law to enable changes to regulations, “has now become history” and said Labour would offer something different. “We will put forward a position in which we negotiate tariff-free access to the European market and legislate after that,” he said.

Labour has not yet begun reaching out to other parties for support in either defeating the government or gathering support for policies in its own manifesto.

Both the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, and the Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, suggested before the election that they would be prepared to lend support to legislation, but said it would be done on merit, rather than as a result of any confidence-and-supply arrangement similar to what Theresa May is seeking with the Democratic Unionist party.

A senior Labour source said the party needed to wait and respond to the arrangement May came to with the DUP. “If they are able to get as far as a Queen’s speech we will amend it to take into account as much of our manifesto programme as possible, deleting, removing the absolute worst aspects of theirs,” the source said.

“We feel we can build a parliamentary majority for a whole range of proposals and against a whole range of their ones.”

Passing Labour amendments to any Queen’s speech is fraught with difficulty and would likely require support from some rebel Conservative MPs. The source said those conversations had not started and would hinge on how upset some Conservative MPs might be with the DUP deal.

Another Labour source close to the leadership said they felt the party was still fighting to form a government. “We’re in extra time at the moment. We haven’t lost,” the source said. “Now it’s about who is the party that can put an agenda to parliament that will gain the most support.

“Given the fact our manifesto was far the most popular, I think we’ve got far more chance. Half of the Tories reject their own manifesto. We are in a position to put forward policies to parliament and command support for them.”



The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, also said he believed there was a majority in parliament to maintain the winter fuel allowance and triple-lock pension, two issues the Conservatives proposed changing in their manifesto.

“I believe the DUP is in favour of scrapping the bedroom tax,” he said. “There’s a whole range of issues like that where we think there’ll be a majority in parliament.”

McDonnell said the party planned to keep up its campaigning momentum across the country, which saw scores of young people turn out to rallies, both in preparation for a potential snap election and as a way of galvanising opposition to unpopular Tory policies.

“As soon as the prime minister said there wouldn’t be a snap election, we thought there would be,” he said. “And so we, we will continue on campaigning all throughout the country.

“That’s the nature of the party we are now – we’re a social movement. But we’ll be campaigning on those individual issues that we’ll force votes in parliament on as well, so we can demonstrate popular support for those issues.”

The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said Labour was seriously preparing for an opportunity to form a minority government if May’s Queen’s speech should fail.

“We’ve got Theresa May squatting in Downing Street. We’ve got a full rebellion going on in the Conservative party. We’ve got no idea as to what’s going to be in this Queen’s speech. They have a manifesto that’s been completely repudiated by the public and indeed by Tory MPs themselves, and no idea what the DUP will agree to or not,” she told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

Corbyn said he expected there would be another election before the end of the year. A new Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday put Labour ahead on 45% and the Tories on just 39%. It also put May and Corbyn neck-and-neck on who would make the best prime minister, with both leaders on 39%, showing a surge in personal support for Corbyn.

The Labour leader said the country could not continue with such unstable government: “We have a programme, we have support and we’re ready to fight another election campaign as soon as may be, because we want to be able to serve the people of this country on the agenda we put forward, which is transformative and has gained amazing levels of support.”

Asked if he was prepared to lead the party for the long term, Corbyn smiled and joked: “Look at me, I’ve got youth on my side.”