Health care or Brexit? | UK parties pick their election issues

The opposition Labour Party kicked off its campaign for Britain’s December general election with one overriding message yesterday: It’s not just about Brexit.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn put the emphasis firmly on economic and social issues, calling the Dec. 12 vote a once-in-a-generation chance to transform the country.  All seats in the 650-seat House of Commons are up for grabs in the early election, chosen by Britain’s 46 million eligible voters.

In his first stump speech of the six-week campaign, Corbyn outlined the left-of-center party’s plan to take on the “vested interests” and “born to rule” elites that he said are hurting ordinary people. The stance was an attempt to pivot the election battle away from the political turmoil swirling around Britain’s stalled departure from the European Union.

Returning to his party’s core issues, Corbyn called out prominent business leaders — including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and aristocratic landowner the Duke of Westminster — as he painted Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives as champions of the wealthy few.

“We’re going after the tax dodgers. We’re going after the dodgy landlords. We’re going after the bad bosses. We’re going after the big polluters. Because we know whose side we’re on,” Corbyn told supporters at a rally in London. “Whose side are you on?”

Britain was supposed to leave the EU yesterday, and Johnson spent months vowing that Brexit would happen on schedule, “come what may.” But after Johnson failed to get British lawmakers to pass his Brexit divorce deal with the bloc, the EU granted Britain a three-month delay, setting a new Brexit deadline of Jan. 31.

Johnson pushed to have this election two years early in order to break the parliamentary deadlock over Brexit.

While Johnson’s Conservatives have a wide lead in most opinion polls, analysts say the election is unpredictable because Brexit cuts across traditional party loyalties. For many voters, their identities as “leavers” or “remainers” are more important than party affiliation.

The prime minister plans to campaign as a Brexit champion and blame his opponents for the delay.

“Today should have been the day that Brexit was delivered and we finally left the EU,” Johnson planned to say in later campaign stops, according to his office. “But despite the great new deal I agreed with the EU, Jeremy Corbyn refused to allow that to happen — insisting upon more dither, more delay and more uncertainty for families and business.”

Labour is hoping that voters want to talk about issues such as health care, the environment and social welfare — all of which saw years of funding cuts by Conservative governments — instead of more Brexit debates.

The party is divided between those such as Corbyn, who are determined to go through with Brexit, and others who want to remain in the EU. After much internal wrangling, Labour now says if it wins the election, it will negotiate a better withdrawal agreement with the EU, then call a referendum where voters will be able to choose between that Brexit deal and remaining in the bloc. It has not said which side it would support.

“The prime minister wants you to believe that we’re having this election because Brexit is being blocked by an establishment elite,” Corbyn said. “People aren’t fooled so easily. They know the Conservatives are the establishment elite.” DANICA KIRKA & JILL LAWLESS, LONDON, AP