Why I am running for Leadership: Talking Point Hackney Gazette

03 Jun 2010

As many of you will know by now, I have put myself forward for the Labour Leadership contest.

This was not a decision I took lightly. Many people had urged me to run for the leadership since the election and I received many encouraging emails from constituents and support from fellow MPs.

However, the main reason I decided to stand was because I could not sit by and see my party vote for a new leader when there was such a narrow list of candidates available.

I believe my constituents in Hackney, who loyally came out to support me on May 6 and helped double my majority, deserve better than this.

This leadership contest is a pivotal moment for the Labour party. The country spoke at the election, gave the party notice to change, and the opportunity to come back stronger with a new leader at the helm.

It would not be right to elect a new leader without having explored all the possibilities. A leadership contest without a female candidate or someone from a more diverse background, would not have offered the choice that the electorate had demanded at the polls, nor represented the interests of Hackney people.

And it is with this in mind that I decided to stand. I wanted to make sure that we have as full a debate as possible about who should be leader and why, in order to get the best candidate for the job.

I do think I can get the 33 nominations I need by next week, to ensure my name goes on the ballot and give the party a wider choice of candidates to choose from.

I intend to speak up on behalf of the loyal Labour vote, many of whom live here in Hackney and chose to stick by their party in this election, even when some people at the top of the party were assuming the worst.

I, like these voters, have been lifelong Labour supporter. I came up from the grassroots of the party, working as a councillor before becoming an MP.

I am not a new politician who is trying to convince the party to look forward, while keeping one foot firmly in the past.

We need a strong independent leader to hold this new Conservative-Liberal coalition to account and someone who will not be afraid to stand up and speak out. This is something I have proven I am able to do as your representative in Westminster.

For example, the billions of pounds of cuts the Conservative Chancellor George Osborne announced last week are of real concern to me. These cuts are bound to hit people Hackney doubly hard; not just through quality of service, but because t he majority of my voters work in the public sector, and their jobs will be the ones at threat.

It is time some politicians remembered that one man's public sector spending cut in Westminster, is another woman's job loss in Hackney. There are no private sector jobs waiting for my constituents if they are made redundant. And many of these workers are women, often heads of single-parent households.

There are lots of issues that are simply not going to come up on the agenda, unless a candidate like myself makes sure they are discussed. These are important issues and were huge factors in the election for Labour, and include the Iraq War, Afghanistan and civil liberties.

But I also want to champion the local issues of concern to people in Hackney.

We do have a chronic lack of housing, and this needs to be addressed by the party. We also need to continue improvement in education and more job opportunities.



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