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Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to create a National Education Service (NES) to provide free learning and training "from the cradle to the grave" if he becomes Prime Minister.

The Labour leader said an NES will form a key plank of his programme for government as he enshrined free education for all as official party policy, subject to the approval of its conference.

As part of the plans, Mr Corbyn will scrap university tuition fees and guarantee adults a set number of hours per week which they could use for education or training.

He claimed that together with Labour's plan to invest £500 billion in infrastructure and high-tech industry over ten years, the NES would help close the UK's productivity gap and boost the economy by £96 billion a year.

"The National Education Service will put good education at the centre of our society - opening up opportunities to everyone," he said.

(Image: PA)

"It will mean that children get a good start in life and for the rest of their lives will have their horizons opened and not be restricted in their choices by the education they can afford, rather than the education they have a passion for.

"This will benefit all of us.

"Our economy faces a productivity crisis.

"Alongside our plans to invest £500 billion in our economy the National Education Service will help us rebuild and transform Britain so that we close the productivity gap unlocking £96 billion to the UK economy and equip our economy with the high wage, high skills jobs of the future, so that nowhere and no-one is left behind."

Asked by the Observer how he would fund the plans, Mr Corbyn replied: "It is expensive. We fund it through corporate taxation levels. By not reducing taxation and by chasing down tax avoidance and tax evasion.

"It's costing us a lot of money not to have a higher level of higher education. If we invest in it we will benefit from it."

While the Labour leader has announced more detail for his education plan, the idea of an NES is not new.

He originally announced the idea a year ago, ahead of the leadership election which swept him to power last year.

In an article he wrote for LabourList announcing the plan , he said it would build on the legacy of Tony Blair.

He said: " Tony Blair famously said Labour’s top three priorities were ‘education, education, education’. From Sure Start, to smaller class sizes to new school buildings, those investments continue to pay dividends today in improved exam results and more young people in university. Let us build on that legacy."