Jeremy Corbyn: I will not be closing down my Facebook page

Jeremy Corbyn has said he will not be closing down his Facebook page after revelations about the site allowing the massive misuse of user data by a consultancy firm.

Launching Labour’s local election campaign in Greater Manchester, Corbyn, who has almost 1.4 million followers on Facebook, said social media was important for him to broadcast his message without “moderation” from the media.

“Are we going to be closing down our Facebook account and our Twitter accounts, and so on? No. We are going to keep those active,” Corbyn told a crowd of supporters at Stretford Sports Village in Trafford on Wednesday.

“Yes, there is a serious issue about the administration and data harvesting [but] in reality, many people, particularly younger people and those under 40 tend to communicate on social media rather than through newspapers. Online is where it’s at for a very large number of people.”

Local elections are taking place in 32 London boroughs and 119 other councils in England on 3 May 3. There are also mayoral ballots in the London boroughs of Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets, as well as in Watford and the Sheffield city region.

Trafford, where Corbyn launched Labour’s campaign, is the richest of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs and is the only one not controlled by the party.

During the launch, Corbyn focused on how Labour councils were taking services back in house in order to deliver them better and using profits to pay the national living wage rather than dividends to shareholders.

Outsourcing did not work, he said. “Take Croydon. The Conservative council privatised the libraries and outsourced the workforce to Carillion. When Carillion collapsed, it was the Labour council that saved people’s jobs and the library by bringing them back in house. Labour councils are clearing up the Tories’ mess, time and time again, and acting as a a human shield against damaging Conservative cuts.”

He said the Conservative-run Northamptonshire country council outsourced more than 95% of its 4,000 staff and transferred them to four new service providers, who paid dividends to shareholders.

“Last month we learned that the council had run out of money and its leader had resigned, blaming the Conservative government. That’s not efficient management it’s reckless gambling with people’s lives,” said Corbyn.

Asked by the Guardian whether council tax bills would rise were Labour to take over, he said: “When councils take services back in house you get a living wage paid to people working in social care, waste collection and other services and don’t have the profits sucked back out by someone else and it actually ends up being cheaper and better.”

Council tax is lower in Tory Trafford than in any of the Labour-run Greater Manchester boroughs.

Corbyn said the government should pay for the increased costs of social care, rather than councils, which are allowed to apply a council tax precept to pay for adult social care.

“If we want to have a caring and efficient economy then we have got to be prepared to pay from central government the money required to local authorities and the health service to ensure the health service is properly funded and the social care element goes with it,” he said.

According to the Labour press office, the average council tax bill per dwelling in a Labour-controlled areas of the country is £1,042, compared with £1,378 in Tory-run areas.