Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed a cheering crowd at a Carlisle pub ahead of the final day of the General Election campaign.

Chanting and clapping as he spoke, the crowd at the Royal Scot pub in Morton roared as Mr Corbyn declared his ambition for sweeping changes, from education to healthcare.

The crowd also jeered his mention of Universal Credit, cheering Mr Corbyn as he said the benefits system would be scrapped and replaced, and the promise of significant job creation through a Labour Government’s “green industrial revolution”.

In response to the fact that benefit claimant figures in Carlisle had decreased since 2013, Mr Corbyn told the News & Star: “The claimant figures may be down and the job numbers up, but the wage levels and the levels of in-work poverty are very high.

“Hence our policy for a £10 an hour living wage for all workers which will obviously benefit the local economy, because people have more money to spend.”

Mr Corbyn, polled by national firm Ipsos MORI as the most unpopular opposition party leader since its records began, is described by some media commentators as a hindrance to local Labour Party campaigners.

Carlisle candidate Ruth Alcroft said this was sometimes felt on the doorstep, but argued it to be partly the result of relentlessly negative media campaigns.

“This is the toughest election I’ve known.

“People are angry at politicians. Jeremy Corbyn, who is one of the kindest, fairest men I’ve ever met has been attacked relentlessly, and people have seen these attacks in the media daily for the last four years.”

But she acknowledged that some of the criticism was not unfounded, saying that the party as a whole had

been too slow to respond properly to the issue of anti-

semitism among its membership.

“There have undeniably been cases of antisemitism in the party,” she said.

“I know this because I know people who have been affected by it. One case of antisemitism is too many. I think we were too slow to realise the scale of the problem.

“We see ourselves as the party of equality, and I think there was probably a naivety in the thought that ‘it can’t happen here’, and if it has happened it’s an individual problem, not a party problem.”

  • Also standing in Carlisle: John Stevenson, Conservatives; Julia Aglionby, Liberal Democrats; Fiona Mills, Ukip.