New leader: Jeremy Corbyn has demanded an end to the benefits cap, and for 1970s style State control of rents

Jeremy Corbyn last night demanded an end to the benefits cap - and for 1970s-style State control of rents.

The new Labour leader said households should be able to claim limitless amounts in benefits – and that imposing a cap has led to ‘social cleansing’.

Instead, he said government should impose ‘rent regulation’, a policy last used in this country 30 years ago and associated with hard-Left governments around the world.

The latest tranche of socialist-style dogma emerged as a poll showed Mr Corbyn has the worst poll ratings of any new Labour leader for three decades.

Less than two weeks into his new job, the Islington MP is already less popular than his failed predecessors Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock and Ed Miliband – all of whom were unable to win an election.

The public also see his party as more divided, extreme and out of date than before the crushing election defeat in May.

Mr Corbyn’s overall rating is minus three per cent, when positives and negatives are added up, according to research by IpsosMori. A total of 33 per cent said they were satisfied with the way he is doing his job compared to 36per cent who were dissatisfied.

That compares to plus two for Mr Foot, plus 20 for Mr Kinnock and plus 19 for Mr Miliband at this stage.

The poll showed just 37 per cent viewed Mr Corbynm as patriotic – following his decision not to sing the national anthem at a Battle of Britain memorial service.

Asked if he would kneel before the Queen when he is sworn into the privy council of senior advisors to the monarch, he said he hadn’t made up his mind.

The poll found the public think he is more honest than David Cameron but, crucially, less than one in three people think he is a capable leader.

Mr Corbyn’s disastrous poll ratings will raise the stakes ahead of his first conference speech as leader next week.

In an interview with ITV News he said he had been preparing for the speech by practising reading from an autocue.

Using one of the devices was an ‘interesting challenge,’ he said.

‘I will say this quietly on your channel, I have never used an autocue in my life before.’

In the interview with deputy political editor Chris Ship, Mr Corbyn said he was a vegetarian but insisted he was happy to ‘tolerate’ dining with meat eaters.

He was asked about the views of his ‘militant’ vegan farming spokesman Kerry McCarthy that meat eaters should be treated like smokers and hit with anti-meat adverts.

He said: ‘I think meat eaters, if they wish to carry on eating meat, that’s up to them to do so.

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Bad start: Less than two weeks into his new job, the Islington MP is already less popular than his failed predecessors Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock and Ed Miliband

‘I don’t stop people eating meat indeed many people that I know very well eat meat often in front of me and I tolerate it with the normal decency, courtesy and respect that you would expect from me.’

On the benefits cap, he said he was strongly opposed to the current cap of £26,000 and government plans to cut it to £23,000 in London and £20,000 in the rest of the country.

He said: ‘You can’t put a figure on it. In the past there was no cap on it ... the amount of money saved in the overall budget from the household benefit cap is actually quite small.’

I don’t stop people eating meat indeed many people that I know very well eat meat often in front of me and I tolerate it with the normal decency, courtesy and respect that you would expect from me. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

He added: ‘My view is the government should introduce rent regulation.

‘Until we get rent regulation, this is the consequence we are going to pay.’

Treasury figures show the saving resulting from the benefit cap is far from insignificant. The existing cap is saving £185million a year and the new one will save an additional half a billion a year by 2020.

Critics of rent controls said they would be ‘disastrous’ for tenants – and said more house building would cut rents.

Mark Littlewood, Director-General at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘Aside from creating unnecessary layers of bureaucracy, this policy may lead to landlords being uncooperative in the hope that tenants leave early.’

‘The key cause of the high cost renting is the lack of supply of homes where people want to live. Labour’s proposals to hold down rent increases will do nothing to improve this.’

Mr Corbyn indicated he would allow members in his shadow cabinet to disagree with him – saying he wanted ‘adult politics’.

‘It’s obvious there are people in there with different views, different traditions, different take on lots of things. Is that a weakness or a strength? I say it’s absolute strength.’