Labour's Jeremy Corbyn unveils measures for young adults

Updated

Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn is promising to restore the education maintenance allowance college students as his campaign shows no signs of losing momentum.

The veteran left-winger will also reaffirm his commitment to cutting the voting age to 16, allowing housing benefit for the under 21s and providing "properly paid" apprenticeships as he sets out his proposals for young adults.

Mr Corbyn - who came under fire over the weekend after he hinted he could restore Labour's historic commitment to the public ownership of industry - has already pledged to scrap university tuition fees and restore student grants.

"To win the next election Labour must stand for a growing economy not a cuts-based economy that chokes off growth, stifles recovery and makes life harder for young people," he said.

"Under my premiership, we in the next Labour government will be committed to making these dreams of a fairer start in life for all young adults become reality."

Earlier leadership rival Andy Burnham warned that of some the new recruits to Labour attracted by Mr Corbyn's radical rhetoric "don't have the party's best interests at heart".

The shadow health secretary became the latest senior figure to voice concern that so-called "entryists" from the hard left were seeking to infiltrate the party in order to vote for Mr Corbyn.

It is thought that around 190,000 of the 390,000 people who are eligible to vote in the leadership election have signed up since the party's general election defeat in May.

They include affiliated supporters who - under new rules adopted under Ed Miliband - have to pay just £3 to take part as well as individual members of trade unions and other organisations which are affiliated to the party.

In an interview with The Huffington Post UK website, Mr Burnham acknowledged that many had been drawn by the excitement generated by Mr Corbyn's leadership bid.

But after Tony Mulhearn - a former leading light in the far left Militant Tendency who was expelled from Labour in the 1980s - reportedly appeared at one of his rallies, Mr Burnham said the veteran left winger needed to "take care".

"I don't doubt for a second there are lots of enthusiastic people who have joined who want something bigger from politics who are drawn to what Jeremy is saying," he said.

"But there are others underneath who don't have the Labour party's best interests at heart. I would just say Jeremy does need to take care about that."

Labour insists that it has "robust" systems in place to prevent "fraudulent or malicious" applications, but would not comment on reports that in the past week alone almost 1,000 people had been excluded.

Advertisement