Jeremy Corbyn calls for new robot tax on firms

Jeremy Corbyn will today hint at fresh taxes on firms that replace people with robots as he calls for a'new settlement between work and leisure'. The Labour leader will use his set piece party conference speech to say that, with automation due to destroy millions of jobs in the coming decades, the state needs to intervene to ensure the benefits are shared across society. 'We need urgently to face the challenge of automation; robotics that could make so much of contemporary work redundant,' he will say. 'That is a threat in the hands of the greedy but what an opportunity if it's managed in the interests of society as a whole. 'If planned and managed properly, accelerated technological change can be the gateway for a new settlement between work and leisure, a springboard for creativity and culture, making technology our servant and not our master at long last.' Labour has previously toyed with the idea of a'universal basic income', which would effectively see everyone put on benefits.