GETTY Mr Corbyn set out a vision of 'socialism for the 21st Century'

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In a party conference speech of searing radical rhetoric, the Labour leader claimed his hard-Left views had now become "mainstream" and had put him on the threshold of power. He declared that the free-market capitalism ushered in by Margaret Thatcher and accepted by New Labour was "broken" and needed to be replaced with "a new model of economic management" based on a massive extension of public ownership. "Now is the time that government took a more active role in restructuring our economy - now is the time that corporate boardrooms were held accountable for their actions," he said.

And he signalled his transformation of Britain will be funded by swingeing tax hikes for "higher earners and big corporations". Mr Corbyn's 75-minute oration was wildly applauded by thousands of Labour Party delegates at the conference in Brighton, who had welcomed him by bellowing his name in adoration in a football terrace-style chant. At the end of the address, the overwhelming majority stood with clenched-fist communist salutes to join a local lesbian and gay choir in singing the Red Flag. Employers' organisations were dismayed by his speech last night. Dr Adam Marshall, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "Jeremy Corbyn's speech will have done little to reassure companies already worried about widespread state intervention, nationalisation, and the radical increases in taxes and costs they could face under a future Labour government."

GETTY Mr Corbyn's 75-minute speech was wildly applauded by thousands of Labour Party delegates

And Stephen Martin, of the Institute of Directors, said business leaders would be "disappointed that there was not one positive thing said about the millions of companies, large and small, that form the bedrock of our economy." Mr Corbyn used his third conference speech as Labour leader to claim the party was now a "government in waiting". Daring the Prime Minister to call another snap general election, he said: "Please, Theresa May take another walking holiday and make another impetuous decision. The Labour campaign machine is primed and ready to roll." He insisted that his hard-line socialist views, banished to the fringes of politics for a generation, had become widely-held "common sense". "It is Labour that is now setting the agenda and winning the arguments for a new common sense about the direction our country should take," he told delegates.

GETTY Mr Corbyn dared Theresa May to call another election

Mr Corbyn signalled his determination to take build on Labour's radical general election manifesto with new policy ideas even further to the Left. He announced that a future Labour government would hit firms with swingeing fines if they refused to publish details of the gender pay gap among employees. He also promised sweeping powers for city councils to impose rent caps on housing and new right for council housing tenants to hold a ballot that could block inner-city regeneration schemes. "Regeneration under a Labour government will be for the benefit of the local people, not private developers, not property speculators," he said. He promised "no social cleansing, no jacking up rents, no exorbitant ground rents." Promising to transform the way the country is run, the Labour leader said: "Our economy no longer delivers secure housing secure well-paid jobs or rising living standards.

GETTY Jeremy Corbyn called his party a 'government in waiting'

"There is a new common sense emerging about how the country should be run. "That’s what we fought for in the election and that’s what’s needed to replace the broken model forged by Margaret Thatcher many years ago." Mr Corbyn rubbished Tory attempts to set a target for net migration as "fake". "We will never follow the Tories into the gutter of blaming migrants for the ills of society. It isn’t migrants who drive down wages and conditions but the worst bosses in collusion with a Conservative government that never misses a chance to attack trade unions and weaken people’s rights at work," he said. "Labour is looking not just to repair the damage done by austerity but to transform our economy with a new and dynamic role for the public sector particularly where the private sector has evidently failed. He repeated his manifesto pledges to take utilities including the railways, water companies and energy firms into public ownership and lift the limit on pay rises for public-sector workers.

General Election 2017: the most shocking election in recent history Thu, June 8, 2017 No-one saw it coming. A resurgent Labour has delivered a humiliating blow to Theresa May. While still the Prime Minister, the Conservative majority has been decimated Play slideshow Reuters/PA/Getty/EPA 1 of 39 How has the election panned out for the four main parties?