JULIE HESMONDHALGH is one of Britain’s best-loved character actors. For 16 years she graced our screens playing Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street.

She has been involved in some of the most groundbreaking scenes in British TV history. Cropper was the first transgender character in a British soap and Julie’s portrayal won many plaudits and was subject of an early day motion in the House of Commons.

Her exit from the soap saw Julie in some emotional scenes as her character died in her husband’s arms after drinking a lethal cocktail in a “right to live” storyline having been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

More recently Julie has appeared in hit drama Broadchurch as well as a range of screen and theatre productions including Happy Valley and God Bless This Child.

She is also a proud trade unionist and socialist and some, including myself, would argue that she is a “national treasure.”

Julie reminds me that she is president of the People’s Assembly — the anti-austerity campaign organisation established in 2014.

But she is clear that her priorities lie with campaigning for a Labour victory in the general election.

“I don’t know but I felt a real shift over the weekend. Did you feel it? It was amazing,” she asks me excitedly. “Even the Corbyn doubters are softening.”

We are speaking just after the launch of the Labour Party manifesto, part of which had been leaked to the press prior to release.

The mainstream capitalist newspaper headlines had accused Labour and Corbyn of wanting to take the country back to the 1970s with renationalisation of the railways and utilities.

However, like many others, Julie sees things differently.

“It’s the socialist manifesto we’ve been wanting all our lives,” she says.

“This is a manifesto to be excited about rather than apologetic about. One that inspires people.”

Julie tells me how people have felt disenfranchised for a long time and when she spoke about politics many said to her that “all parties are the same.”

“I never subscribed to that, even in the darkest days under Blair,” she says.

The lifelong Labour supporter is keen to point out the difference between the parties.

“Labour care about people, but the Tories just advance their own interests.”

But things have changed with the election of Corbyn as Labour leader and the vision he has set out for the future.

“There is now such clear water between the two parties. Just think how much better off people will be,” she tells me.

Julie has spoken on many platforms in support of Labour and the People’s Assembly. I remind her of the first time I heard her speak, on a TUC demonstration in Manchester. She gave a storming speech in defence of the NHS and spoke as a member of her trade union, Equity.

“I’m not in my comfort zone, public speaking,” she says. “But sometimes you have to put your head above the parapet. If you have a platform, you know. People say: ‘That used to be Hayley from Coronation Street’ and it might connect with them.”

We discuss the NHS which Julie describes as “the jewel in the crown of this country. The envy of the world.”

This winter saw the worst-ever performance for the NHS in a number of areas. Accident and emergency departments were forced to close their doors to patients as they were unable to cope, causing the British Red Cross to declare a crisis in our hospitals.

The biggest top-down reorganisation in NHS history through the controversial Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) will see one in six A&E departments close, thousands of health workers lose their jobs and open the door to the private sector.

Julie believes that we need a Labour government to save the NHS from the Tories.

“Think what it will mean for people. Just bringing back nurses’ bursaries will be a massive, massive boost. The funding. More money being poured into it.

“I feel as a culture we have taken it for granted. It’s being taken away from us by stealth. People don’t understand what it means to have free healthcare.”

But she was encouraged by the huge demonstration for the NHS earlier this year which saw 250,000 people march.

“We are the voice for everybody. A cohesive movement moving towards a peaceful and just society. This is a moment in time, a moment in history.

“This is no exaggeration. I have wanted this all my adult life. Some of us have waited a long time for this.”

Julie sees real hope in a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party. “I feel emboldened at the moment.”

I ask her whether she has a message ahead of the election.

“You have a clear choice. One is a vote for the privileged few, for foxhunting, for zero-hours contracts, for tuition fees, for the bedroom tax.

“Or a vote for the many, a vote for childcare, a vote for the NHS, a vote for education.

“But this is the moment. Get out and vote Labour for the sake of our future.”