Labour leader contender Jeremy Corbyn MP at free public meeting in Coventry on Sunday

LABOUR leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn MP is to hold a free public meeting in Coventry on Sunday where anyone can come an ask him questions.

The event on Sunday (August 2) is from 2pm to 4pm, at the Unite the Union offices in Transport House, Short Street, Coventry.

It is open to Labour party members, union members and the general public.

The surprise frontrunner from the left of the party has emerged as the bookmakers’ favourite.

Thousands of people have signed up to cast their vote. Many are thought to be young people who see Mr Corbyn as the change candidate – someone who can genuinely articulate their concerns about jobs, debt and housing outside of the Westminster orthodoxy, oppose ‘austerity’, tackle inequality and Scottish disillusion with the party.

The Labour party will elect their new leader in September from four candidates – the others being former Labour ministers Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, and relative newcomer Liz Kendall, who articulates the view Labour must do more to resonate with business and English middle-class aspiration if it wants to stand a chance of winning in 2020.

Darrall Cozens, coordinator of the Coventry4Corbyn campaign, said: “From rank outsider to firm favourite amongst ordinary members of the Labour Party and trade unions, Jeremy Corbyn has come a long way since the start of the campaign to be new leader of the Labour Party.

“His anti-austerity message has resonated amongst those who have suffered cuts in jobs, wages and public services. Why should ordinary people pay for a crisis they did not cause?

“In the vote last week in Parliament he was the only candidate of the four to vote against the government’s so-called Welfare Reform and Work Bill. The other three abstained. By the government’s own figures the cuts contained in the Bill will affect a third of a million young people.

“The Citizens Advice Bureau talks of food poverty, rent arrears and evictions as a consequence of the Bill. The Child Poverty Action Group says that it is a “tax on the poorest of the poor. And the upshot will be more families with too little money for absolute basics for children, like food and warmth.

“These are the reasons why Jeremy Corbyn voted against the Bill while the other candidates abstained. This is one of the reasons why his popularity has surged among ordinary people.

“But what else does he stand for? What shaped his political outlook? Why is he vilified in the large sections of the media? Why do vested interests fear him?

“Come and hear the answers to these questions on Sunday.

Come and meet at first hand the future leader of the Labour Party.”