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Jeremy Corbyn was a no-show but Labour’s Angela Rayner visited Stroud to rally hundreds of party supporters ahead of the final week of campaigning of the General Election.

The shadow education secretary came to Forest Green Rovers New Lawn stadium in support of David Drew, Labour’s candidate for Stroud and former MP.

Ms Rayner told the hundreds gathered about Labour’s manifesto pledges building a country “for the many, not the few,” including a free National Education Service – in which people can access free training throughout their lives – and abolishing tuition fees.

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But speaking to Gloucestershire Live, she was unable to give figures for how much all that would cost, referring instead to the costing listed in Labour’s manifesto.

She said: “There’s a whole list of the manifesto costing, I can’t tell you every single line for line in front of you now. But I can tell you that it’s fully costed, unlike the Conservatives however who haven’t even put a single number in their manifesto, apart from their page numbers.”

She said Labour would reverse the “big tax giveaways” under the Conservative governments of David Cameron and Theresa May to big corporations.

“We will make sure we build a national education service from cradle to grave that will give our young people at any person at any age those opportunities to do the jobs that we need.”

During the rally she told the crowd Prime Minister Theresa May is a “plastic Margaret Thatcher” who will take children’s school meals away and who is breaking manifesto pledges even before polling day.

Her appearance came after Mr Corbyn cancelled his appearance at the last minute to take part in a BBC debate in Cambridge.

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Ms Rayner denied Mr Corbyn was reluctant to defend his record, despite leaving it late to decide to take part in tonight’s debate.

She said: “Jeremy has been fantastic on the stomp and actually in the TV debates. I think what we’re seen through this competition in the General Election, is that Theresa May is weak and wobbly whereas Jeremy Corbyn has gone from strength to strength.

“All she does is say ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and won’t debate with Jeremy.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said neither of the manifestos from both Labour and the Conservatives have “set out an honest set of choices.”

It said the Conservatives’ focus on cutting immigration risks a £6billion hit to the UK’s finances and said Labour’s plans would raise spending to the highest level since the mid 1980s and record levels in peacetime.

Ms Rayner however denied Labour was a party of high taxes and reckless spending.

She said: “I will guarantee you that our tax rate will still be the lowest in the G7 for the big corporations and we’ve put a cap on where small and medium business with profits under 300,000 would have to pay for corporation (tax.)

“I will guarantee that 95 per cent of those British workers will not pay any more national insurance contributions or tax. We’ve said the top five per cent of earners will pay a little bit more and it’s important we’re transparent about that.”

Mr Drew, who lost his Stroud seat to Neil Carmichael in 2010, told the crowd “this is the year of the underdog” and encouraged those gathered to speak to five people to convince them to vote Labour.

Speaking after the rally, he said: “We know our vote is totally solid. It will be determined by those who switch. I hope that those who are progressive will switch to me.”