LONDON (AP) — Britain’s main opposition Labour Party is launching its detailed platform for Britain’s Dec. 12 election as it tries to close an opinion-poll gap with the governing Conservatives.

The left-of-center party is pledging higher public spending and a greater role for the state in housing, transport and the provision of utilities.

The party says Thursday’s manifesto will include pledges to build 150,000 new homes a year for social rent and create hundreds of thousands of “green jobs” to combat climate change.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives accuse Labour of reckless spending and outmoded socialist ideas.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn compares himself to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose “New Deal” helped tackle the Great Depression. Corbyn said Roosevelt “had to take on the rich and powerful in America to do it.”

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