Jeremy Corbyn: ‘Our alternative point of view is getting a lot of support’

Left-wing Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn praised the success of his election campaign and gave an upbeat view of his party’s future in an interview to RT after making a speech at a rally in London.

“We’re getting a good campaign going…we’re putting forward an alternative point of view which is getting a lot of support and resonance with the public,” Corbyn told RT.

Despite heated opponent rhetoric and media accusations, with moderate campaign rival Yvette Cooper recently claiming that Corbyn’s candidacy would guarantee years of Conservative rule, Corbyn himself remained bullish about the party’s climate.

“I do not see a split of the Labour Party, I see a brilliant rejuvenation of our party by thousands of young people, most of which have never been involved in politics before but are excited about the possibilities of change,” he added.

Speaking at an event attended by Labour activists and supporters alongside his fellow MPs Diane Abbott and Clive Lewis, Corbyn campaigned for rethinking the idea of the British welfare state and distinction from the corporate culture that promotes “greed and war.”

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He also sharply criticized the “austerity policy” of the current government that favors corporations and deprives the “the poorest people in the country” of necessary support, speaking about the £12 billion ($18.6 billion) welfare budget cuts.

“Look at … a budget that sells off 30 billion pounds worth of state assets in one year, that cuts corporation tax, and removes benefits from the third child onwards in any family, removes the chance of a university education for those of the poorest families, look at what their agenda is,” Corbyn said.

He also addressed UK foreign policy, condemning foreign interventions under both Tory and Labor leadership as well as “the way in which we as a country have been pouring arms” into the Middle East, and made an impassioned plea for peace.

“Look at those desperate people dying in the Mediterranean … and the way in which we as a country have been pouring arms into the region at the same time. I am not in favor of further military intervention, I’m in favor of a peace process, a development process, recognition of the rights of … all those people in the region that have been so hard done by hundreds of times,” he said.

He also claimed that Labour was “on the march to achieve social justice, real opportunities, real equalities for the people of this country, and be a force for the promotion of peace and good in the world.”

Corbyn has been waging a campaign aimed at gathering political and public support in a bid for the Labour Party leadership after the party’s defeat in the May general election. He is seeking the support of trade unions and young people, many of whom are enthusiastic about his anti-austerity campaign.

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At the same time Corbyn faces a growing backlash from the Labour Party establishment, including many of its Blairite MPs.
“The moronic MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn to have a debate… they should be ashamed of themselves,” John McTernan, a former advisor to Tony Blair, has said.

“The Labour Party members want to win and I don’t think they will be electing Jeremy Corbyn to do so,” said Tristram Hunt MP, another leading Blairite.