Stephen Hepburn MP: We want a General Election to let people replace May with Corbyn

I’m proud of my leader and party after the past week at the Labour conference.

It’s Corbyn and Labour that are brimming with fresh ideas to help working people, not tired Theresa May and the tireder Tories.

From better childcare for young families to giving workers a stake in companies so they share the fruits of the graft, Labour’s making the running.

We’re developing alternatives for the many to the greedy capitalism promoted by callous Conservatives for the benefit of a rich few.

Power and its miserable neighbour, powerlessness, are the root of inequality, unfairness, injustice and most of the woes in our society.

The chaotic Tory Brexit is endangering wages, jobs and our nation’s security so we want a General Election to let the people replace May with Corbyn and put Labour in charge.

I want rising wages, stable jobs, properly funded public services and every person to be treated with respect.

The incompetent Tories are advising companies to stockpile food and medicines.

We enjoyed some robust debates at the Labour conference in Liverpool. I made no apology for that. We’re a democratic party with more than half a million members and many more through their trade unions.

In fact Labour’s bigger than all the other political parties – Tories, Liberals, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru, DUP – put together.

But Labour came out of the week just ending with a unity, common purpose and desire to rebuild Britain for the many not the few.

And just watch the Tories fight like cats in a sack next week, plotting against May.

They care for only themselves, Boris Johnson and the rest jostling for May’s job.

The people I care about are those I’m proud to represent in the Jarrow parliamentary constituency, people on South Tyneside and in Gateshead, and those around the country and in the world who deserve a fair crack of the whip – in other words, more power over their lives.

Frankly there should not be one person in this land who faces the kind of hardship and suffering I hear about in my advice surgeries and mailbag.

There are people who have fallen on the hardest of times through absolutely no fault of their own.

On South Tyneside alone unemployment is around double the national average and that’s before you take into account the significant increase in the number of people on a zero-hours contract – up 100,000 nationally from 1.7m to 1.8m – who endure the insecurity of not knowing how much income they are going to have from one week to the next.

The wealthy and speculators who bankroll the Tory Party profit from this exploitation, millionaires making millions from the heartbreak of millions.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can rebuild a fairer, more prosperous, decent Britain. And that’s what Jeremy Corbyn and Labour will do. Bring on that General Election.