In a backroom of the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Jeremy Corbyn is semi-reclining on the end of a tatty sofa. He’s not gone the full Rees-Mogg, but you do get the impression being on an election campaign actually relaxes him.

On the stage outside, a coterie of Labour’s more illustrious supporters are on the stage to help launch the party’s latest spending pledge: a £1bn Cultural Capital Fund for the arts. Rob Delaney hosts. Mark Rylance, Lily Allen, MIA and Maxine Peake appear to address the faithful. Naturally, Billy Bragg and Ken Loach are knocking around, too.



As campaign stops go, this is one of the more glamorous. But I’m here to ask the would-be Prime Minister about an area of public services that rarely makes national headlines, despite the huge cutbacks it has faced in recent years: public libraries.



'The Conservatives know the price of everything and the value of nothing,' he says, maintaining his calm posture but disdain creeping into his voice.



'They’ve closed hundreds of libraries because they don’t recognise, and don’t want to recognise, the lifeline that libraries provide as a free service, open to all regardless of wealth.'

