Jeremy Corbyn has said "people are dying" because of the Government's austerity policies, urging voters to "send a message" to Theresa May in upcoming by-elections.

The Labour leader was speaking at the party's local government conference in Warwick on Saturday ahead of the elections in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central on 23 February.

He said the Government's "disgraceful neglect" had led to an "emergency" in local services.

"We have a state of emergency in our social care system and the worst crisis in the history of our NHS," he said.

Mr Corbyn said a report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine had found that the crisis "was linked to 30,000 excess deaths in 2015".


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"People are dying because of the choices made by this Government," he added.

In their report, the authors concluded that "the possibility that the cuts to health and social care are implicated in almost 30,000 excess deaths" needed "further exploration."

When it was published, a Department of Health spokesperson called the report "a triumph of personal bias over research".

They said: "Every year there is significant variation in reported excess deaths, and in the year following this study they fell by nearly 20,000, undermining any link between pressure on the NHS and the number of deaths.

"Moreover, to blame an increase in a single year on 'cuts' to the NHS budget is arithmetically impossible given that the budget rose by almost £15bn between 2009-10 and 2014-15."

Both of the upcoming by-elections were caused by the resignations of sitting Labour MPs - Jamie Reed and Tristram Hunt.

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In Stoke, a long-held Labour seat that is facing a challenge from UKIP and its leader Paul Nuttall, Mr Corbyn appealed to voters to reject the "politics of hate".

"Hatred won't build homes, it won't create jobs, and it won't fund health and social care," he said.

"It won't bring our people dignity or bring our communities together.

"But that's true of the Tories too - when politicians of the right have no solutions, they find a scapegoat.

"They try to divide and set people against each other."

Can Labour hold on in the Copeland by-election?

In Copeland, however, Mr Corbyn faces the task of winning over a constituency that relies heavily on the Sellafield nuclear processing facility, so his opposition to nuclear power will not endear him to many voters.

The Conservatives look to be on top in the Cumbrian seat, but Mr Corbyn is hoping that he can persuade voters to use the by-election as a chance to voice their feelings on austerity.

He said: "Voters have a chance to tell the Government that they've had enough of their damaging cuts to health and social care and their disregard for human life and dignity.

"Our job as the Labour Party isn't to find a vulnerable community to blame - it is to unite people together to build a better world."

:: Candidates in the Copeland by-election

Michael Guest - Independent; Rebecca Hanson - Liberal Democrats; Trudy Harrison - Conservatives; Roy Ivinson - Independent; Jack Lenox - Green Party; Fiona Mills - UKIP; Gillian Troughton - Labour.

:: Candidates in the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election

Mohammed Yaqub Akram - Independent; Zulfiqar Ali - Liberal Democrats; Jack Brereton - Conservatives; The Incredible Flying Brick - Official Monster Raving Loony Party; Adam Colclough - Green Party; Godfrey Davies - Christian Peoples Alliance; Barbara Fielding - Independent; David Furness - British National Party; Paul Nuttall - UKIP; Gareth Snell - Labour