LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has compared his main rival to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin as he prepares to officially launch the governing Conservative Party's campaign for the Dec. 12 election.

Johnson, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party would "raise taxes so wantonly" that it would destroy Britain's prosperity.

He says Labour leaders are attacking the rich "with a relish and vindictiveness not seen since Stalin persecuted the kulaks," the wealthier peasants who were targeted by the Soviet regime in the 1930s.

Johnson will meet Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday to mark the formal dissolution of Parliament in preparation for the election, before kicking off the Conservative Party campaign with a speech later in the day.