Jeremy Corbyn pledges 'education for all' on visit to West Notts College in Kirkby

Speaking on a visit to West Nottinghamshire College's construction centre in Kirkby, Mr Corbyn spoke about his plans for more vocational education and apprenticeship opportunities - proposals he says the college would benefit from.

The Labour leader discussed his proposed National Education Service, a state-run system paid for via the taxation of the "top five per cent" of earners and a rise in corporation tax.

The proposals would see vocational and academic education provided for anyone, of any age, for free, and hundreds of thousands more apprenticeships proposed across the country.

Speaking to your Chad on the visit, Mr Corbyn said the "under-funding of schools" has led to standards that are "not good enough", and it is something Labour will address if they win the December 12 election.

He said: "Our National Education Service would make sure a vocational education and an academic education is available for all people.

"It will properly fund schools and colleges, and a very large number of the students coming here are having to spend their first year learning maths and English because the standards in these topics are not good enough before they come into college.

"That's not the fault of the college, that's the fault of the under-funding of our schools, the loss of teaching assistants and the introduction of league tables in education.

"The National Education Service would ensure proper funding all the way through, it would change Ofsted into a supportive inspection regime rather like the old HMIe used to be, because the inspection is often very brutal.

"The side effect of this is that students get eased out of schools because they're not going to be high achievers. A functioning education system educates everyone."

On the visit to Kirkby, Mr Corbyn also touched on his decision to hold a "neutral" stance when offering a second referendum on Brexit.

Having been asked to explain his position to the 70 per cent of Mansfield and Ashfield who voted to leave the EU, Mr Corbyn said: "We cannot go on forever debating Brexit and how people voted in 2016.

"The referendum result gave a 52/48 decision as we well know. If this country crashes out without any kind of deal or with a sweetheart trade deal with the USA, then jobs and our public services are at risk.

"What I'm suggesting is that we will negotiate within three months a credible option to leave the EU, which maintains our trading relationship, and we put that alongside an option to remain in a referendum within six months.

"My job would be to deliver the result of that referendum and be the honest broker to bring people together.

"Look, if you're in Mansfield and you voted to leave in the referendum, and you're on Universal Credit in the private rented sector, your life is not easy.

"If you live in London and you voted to remain, you're in the private rented sector and you're on Universal Credit, your life is not easy.

"We want to bring people together, and that's what I intend to do."