In case you missed it this letter published in Saturday's Guardian suggest some at least of the newly elected Labour MPs will resist a return to New Labour policies and challenge austerity. It is interesting that they are mainly from the north of England with just one London Labour MP signing the letter:
Having arrived in Westminster as newly elected Labour MPs, and after speaking to tens of thousands of voters during our election campaigns, we know how important it is for the future of our party to move forward with an agenda that best serves the everyday needs of people, families and communities, and that is prepared to challenge the notion of austerity and invest in public services.
Labour must now reach out to the 5 million voters lost since 1997, and those who moved away from Labour in Scotland, renewing their hope that politics does matter and Labour is on their side.
We need a new leader who looks forward and will challenge an agenda of cuts, take on big business and will set out an alternative to austerity – not one which will draw back to the New Labour creed of the past. Labour needs a leader who is in tune with the collective aspiration of ordinary people and communities across Britain, meeting the need for secure employment paying decent wages, homes that people can call their own, strong public services back in public hands, and the guarantee of a real apprenticeship or university course with a job at the end of it. From restoring Sure Start to providing dignity and a good standard of living in retirement, these are the aspirations key to real Labour values today and will re-engage people across our country in the years to come.
We look forward to engaging in the debate in the weeks ahead to secure our party as being best able to meet the challenges faced by ordinary people at this time.
Richard Burgon MP (Leeds East), Louise Haigh MP (Sheffield Heeley), Harry Harpham MP (Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough), Imran Hussain MP (Bradford East), Clive Lewis MP (Norwich South), Rebecca Long Bailey MP (Salford and Eccles), Rachael Maskell MP (York Central), Kate Osamor MP (Edmonton), Cat Smith MP (Lancaster and Fleetwood), Jo Stevens MP (Cardiff Central)
Congratulations to these newly elected MP's for speaking out for their party's real values. It would be refreshing to see a Labour Party which returned to this way, and offered a real alternative to voters from the New Labour (i.e. Neo-Conservative) version that emerged in the 1990's.
ReplyDeletePhilip Grant.
Notice no Dawn Butler or Tulip Siddiq. Dawn is deeply tainted by Blairism of course, while Tulip is too busy with TV appearances. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteOf course not, Dawn is a careerist tory as opposed to a values politician.
DeleteNor Unite-member Catherine West...
ReplyDeleteHedging their bets and waiting to see which way the wind blows. Don't want to blow your career prospects by demonstrating a weakness for principles.
ReplyDeleteMike Hine
One of the signatories is now MP for Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough, the former seat of David Blunkett. Blunkett became much too heavily connected with a private company that had global ambitions, A4e [aka Action for Employment].
ReplyDeleteWhen Blunkett was Secretary of State for Education and Employment David Blunkett, A4e was expanding its 'welfare to work industry' operations from the North of England into London. The reason I know that is that I was a jobseekr and intern with another 'welfare to work industry' company in London and told by the Head of Jobsearch of that company to complete weekly jobsearch portfolios relating a minimum of 16 job leads and I actually applied for a job with a company called A4e that was expanding into London.
Since Blunkett owed a double allegiance to that company, if not before, 'welfare to work industry' customers in Sheffield and elsewhere have been well able to tell Labour candidates that a privatised 'welfare to work inustry' is more of a problem than a solution.
It would, I am sure, be very interesting to see what other 'interests' Labour MPs hold in the private sector while mass media commentators focus so much on the power of 'the trade union lobby' in the Labour Party leadership election process.
Not sure any of these leaders will help chances.
ReplyDelete