Labour manifesto leak: Renationalise rail, buses, energy and Royal Mail

Labour is poised to pledge to re-nationalise energy companies, railways and the Royal Mail in its most left-wing election manifesto in a generation.

Leaked drafts of the manifesto also reveal Jeremy Corbyn is committed to achieving a "nuclear-free world" and "extremely cautious" about using Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

And in a pledge that will be attacked by Tory ministers, the manifesto says the Labour leader will only send the armed forces into combat if "all other options have been exhausted".

The manifesto also says Mr Corbyn will scrap tuition fees, rule out a "no deal" Brexit and refuse to set a migration target, but keep Trident despite Mr Corbyn’s personal opposition to its renewal.

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The leak came on the eve of a meeting to agree the manifesto to be attended by Labour’s national executive, shadow cabinet, policy forum, trade union leaders and backbench committee of MPs.

The proposals, already being dismissed by critics as a return to the 1970s, include:

:: A pledge to nationalise energy firms, railways, bus firms and Royal Mail
:: Income tax increases for those earning more than £80,000 a year
:: Ensuring 60% of the UK’s energy comes from renewable sources by 2030
:: Companies with government contracts would only be allowed to pay their highest earner 20 times more than the lowest
:: Fines for businesses that pay their staff high wages and a business levy on profits

The draft manifesto, which runs to 43 pages, also contains promises of £6bn-a-year extra for the NHS and £1.6bn-a-year for social care.

University tuition fees will be abolished entirely and town halls ordered to build 100,000 new council houses a year under a new Department for Housing.

Thousands of homes will be offered to rough sleepers and private rent hikes capped at inflation.

A new Ministry of Labour will oversee the biggest boost to workers’ rights in decades, while planned hikes to the pension age beyond 66 will not go ahead.

It also contains measures already announced including £5bn to end "Tory schools cuts", 10,000 extra police officers and a £250bn capital investment programme to upgrade British infrastructure.

Despite the big spending pledges, the manifesto includes a commitment to get rid of the deficit and balance Britain’s day-to-day budget by the end of the next Parliament.

The extra spending will be almost entirely funded by new taxes for big corporations and rich individuals, the manifesto suggests.

The draft manifesto states: "University tuition is free in many northern European countries, and under a Labour government it will be free in Britain too."

Mr Corbyn has previously suggested the measure would cost £7bn and could be funded through higher corporation tax. There will also be £1bn invested in culture and the arts.

The pledges to boost workers’ and trade union rights include the doubling of paternity leave on increased pay; a right to a contract for those working 12 hours a week or more; and an assumption that workers are employees unless a firm can prove otherwise.

On defence the manifesto says: "Any prime minister should be extremely cautious about ordering the use of weapons of mass destruction which would result in the indiscriminate killing of millions of innocent civilians."

On immigration, the manifesto says Labour will make "no false promises" as the Tories have done.

Instead it states "our economy needs migrant workers to keep going" and vows to abandon rules which stop British citizens from bringing in spouses from outside Europe unless they earn £18,600-a-year.

That ‘minimum income threshold’ will be dropped, and replaced with a new obligation to live in Britain without relying on public funds or benefits.

Instead it vows to crack down on bosses who try to undercut wages with migrant workers or recruit exclusively from abroad.

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The manifesto will delight Labour left-wingers who have spent decades calling for the party to be more radical, but critics are bound to compare it to the Michael Foot manifesto of 1983, notoriously dismissed by the late Gerald Kaufman as "the longest suicide note in history".

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn told Sky News: "We do not comment on leaks. We will announce our policies in our manifesto, which is our plan to transform Britain for the many, not the few."

A Conservative spokesman said: "This is a total shambles. Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to unleash chaos on Britain have been revealed.

"The commitments in this dossier will rack up tens of billions of extra borrowing for our families and will put Brexit negotiations at risk.

"Jobs will be lost, families will be hit and our economic security damaged for a generation if Jeremy Corbyn and the coalition of chaos are ever let anywhere near the keys to Downing Street."

For the Liberal Democrats, Tom Brake said: "This manifesto became meaningless the day Jeremy Corbyn ordered his MPs to vote with the Conservatives and UKIP to give Theresa May a blank cheque on Brexit.

"Labour supporters should have hope that someone will stand up to Theresa May’s divisive Brexit deal, but it won’t be Jeremy Corbyn."

And John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: "This manifesto is a toxic mix of nationalisations, interventions and monumental tax hikes.

"A 1970s-style agenda would be a disaster for the country and the parties should instead be offering up policies that get the economy in shape to compete in the global marketplace.

"That means tax cuts for individuals and businesses to leave more money in the pockets of those who earned it, and cutting out wasteful spending so that resources go towards essential services."

(c) Sky News 2017: Labour manifesto leak: Renationalise rail, buses, energy and Royal Mail