Labour’s ugly contest begins

The choice for Labour's next leader boils down to another Tony Blair or another Neil Kinnock.

Emily Hohler
By
published
in Features

On Monday, Labour formally launched the contest to find Ed Miliband's successor as leader. All five potential candidates gathered at the GMB union's annual conference. If the audience had been "representative of the public at large", Labour could "sail to victory" under Jeremy Corbyn, who has "not wavered" in his left-wing beliefs since first elected in 1983, says Andy McSmith in The Independent.

However, Andy Burnham is still the candidate to beat, with the nominations of 53 MPs. Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall have 41 and 36 respectively. Corby has 12 and Mary Creagh, five. Candidates need 35 to secure a place on the ballot paper, and nominations close next Monday.

Under new leadership rules, MPs have one vote, the same as any other party member, says Dan Hodges in The Daily Telegraph. "So nominations represent their final opportunity to exert major influence over the contest." But sending a "clear, decisive signal to Labour activists" is hard when most MPs seem conflicted as to "both their route and their guide".

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As one shadow cabinet minister put, do we want another Tony Blair (Liz Kendall)? Or another Neil Kinnock (Andy Burnham)? The first won three elections; the second lost two so the question may seem a "no-brainer". But it is far less straightforward for many Labour MPs. It's not just because they aren't convinced Labour is ready to "embrace an unabashed Blairite"; they also don't think any of the candidates has a "cat in hell's chance" of winning an election outright in 2020.

It's true that none is a convincing prime minister, says Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times, but the next general election is "wide open". Two more years of "intense fiscal consolidation could snap the public's patience". Europe could leave the Tories "in tatters". But Labour's "most compelling" grounds for optimism is Cameron's departure, which he has said will happen before the next election.

"Politics is about leadership." Cameron has led the party for a decade and voters like him. "None of Labour's leadership hopefuls" is in his class, but "none of them have to be. Their job is to defeat his successor" and the Tories will find him "hideously difficult to replace".

Emily Hohler
Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.

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