Starmer Vows to Stay Radical in U.K. Labour Leadership Pitch
Starmer Vows to Stay Radical in U.K. Labour Leadership Pitch
Keir Starmer vowed to maintain Labour’s radicalism and win the U.K.’s next general election as he laid out his pitch to lead the country’s main opposition party.
Labour needs to “take the fight” to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservatives without abandoning its principles and “people desperately need and want us to win,” he said.
“We have to deliver a program that will tackle low pay and insecure work, rebuild our public services, empower communities and tackle the climate emergency,” Starmer said in a statement before the official launch of his leadership bid, scheduled for Saturday. “My campaign will be about defending Labour’s radical values and winning for the majority in 2024 -- not either one without the other.”
Starmer, 57, is the favorite to take over from Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s dismal performance in last month’s election, when it fell to its biggest defeat since the 1930s. But he needs to dispel the impression that he only represents a metropolitan elite as he tries to appeal to the party’s grassroots members who twice elected Corbyn, an old-school socialist, to the party leadership.
His vow to “retain our radicalism” is a signal he’d retain some of the outgoing leader’s platform, while at the same time making a vow “to rebuild people’s trust in Labour as a force for good and real change.” On Saturday, Starmer will visit a food bank in Oldham before launching his leadership platform at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester -- the birthplace of the British Trades Union Congress.
There are six candidates in the race, which will culminate with the announcement of a new leader on April 4. They have until Monday to pass the first hurdle of securing the support of at least 22 of the party’s members of Parliament and members of the European Parliament.
As of Friday afternoon, Starmer led the way with 63 nominations, according to the Labour Party website. Rebecca Long Bailey, the party’s business spokesman and preferred candidate of Corbyn and his supporters, had accrued 22 nominations, while backbencher Lisa Nandy had 24, and Jess Phillips, another backbencher, 22. The party’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Emily Thornberry, and Clive Lewis, an economy spokesman, trailed on nine and four nominations respectively.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart Biggs
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