LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn called on party organisers and politicians to fight hard to hang onto the council in the May local election and to ready themselves for a general election when he stopped off in Dudley yesterday (Friday).

The opposition leader called in at Woodside Community Centre as part of efforts to rally grassroots support amid media reports that disagreements over Brexit are threatening to split the party.

Mr Corbyn urged loyal Labour party members, who had packed into the centre in Highgate Road, to “work as hard as you can to regain control of this council so that even under a period of austerity you have an imaginative council” that pursues investment, invests in apprentices, develops new products, gives contracts to companies that recognise trade unions and helps to develop the local economy.

He told members austerity was far from over for people on Universal Credit, those waiting for hospital treatment, the homeless and families with children in overcrowded and cash-strapped schools but he stressed imaginative councils could help to revive the fortunes of ailing high streets and communities even in periods of austerity.

Labour leaders in Dudley, where the balance of council power hangs on a knife edge, have yet to release their manifesto ahead of their fight to retain control but Mr Corbyn said from what he had heard their plans sounded “absolutely brilliant” and that the party locally had been looking at community wealth building, the need for investment and at “issues that Preston and other councils have faced”.

He told members they needed to stay “strong” in their beliefs to put the party’s message across as he said: “If you think the mainstream media have been a bit harsh on me in the last week you ain’t seen nothing yet. I’m sure there’s plenty more to come.”

He said he had visited most key constituencies in the UK to talk to members about issues affecting them locally and to give the party the strength to go into a general election as he told of Labour’s recent failed no confidence motion against the Government but he warned: “We’re not going away, we’re not giving up, we’ll put down as many motions of no confidence as it takes to get rid of this government and get a general election.”