UK Opposition Labour Party releases election manifesto

Britain's Opposition Labour party on Tuesday officially released its general election manifesto, days after a leaked draft of the document has made headlines about the party's widespread re-nationalisation plans.

Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn described the party's pledges as a "radical and responsible" plan for a Labour-led government, should it be voted in on June 8. While the Conservative Party dismissed the plans as unrealistic as the "sums don't add up", the Labour Party claimed it will offer the electorate a strong alternative to the Theresa May led government's "fear-based" election campaign. "People want a country run for the many not the few. For the last seven years, our people have lived through the opposite, a Britain run for the rich, the elite and the vested interests.

Labour's mission, over the next five years, is to change all that," Corbyn said at the launch at Bradford University on Tuesday. "It's a programme that will reverse our national priorities to put the interests of the many first. It will change our country while managing within our means," he said.

The party claims its plans will raise an extra 6.4 billion pounds from income tax as the rate would be increased for people earning over 80,000 pounds, with a new 50p rate for those on more than 123,000 pounds. Labour said the total extra tax take, which also includes corporation tax rises and a crackdown on tax avoidance, would be 48.6 billion pounds.

The party's manifesto includes plans for an "excessive pay levy" on salaries above 330,000 pounds, more hours of free childcare and the nationalisation of railways, Royal Mail and England's water companies. The water industry had been sold off in 1989 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.