No clear winner in first TV debate between contenders for top Labour post
The four Labour MPs vying for the party’s leadership have clashed in a televised debate as they laid out their plans for a better future.
The four Labour MPs include Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, Jeremy Corbyn and Yvette Cooper. Veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn just made it on the ballot paper with the help of fellow Labour MPs, many of who don’t agree with him. Many people see Corbyn as the candidate with the best Labour credentials, the candidate that has the most experience and who can offer a credible alternative to the status quo of Tory austerity and free markets. During the debate he said, “we have been cowed by powerful commercial interests, frightened of the press, frightened to stand up for what we absolutely believe in.”
But Corbyn is still a rank outsider and the former Health Secretary Andy Burnham is already seen as the frontrunner. During the debate, he controversially defended the legacy of Tony Blaire, saying, “Tony did a lot of good things, as did Gordon Brown and so did Ed Miliband. Let’s build on those things. I am a true Labour man and I am true to our roots.”
Liz Kendall is seen as the Blairite candidate. She is the most inexperienced of all four hopefuls, using the most powerful rhetoric to display her feelings on immigration. She believes that people “are angry about people trying to get into this country illegally, scrambling on to Lorries in Calais…If you come here legally from Europe, you should come to work and not claim benefits.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper was rumored to stand for the leadership in 2010 but stood aside for her husband, former shadow chancellor Ed Balls. Balls lost his seat at last month’s election paving the way for Cooper to re-launch herself, out of the shadow of Balls. Her most interesting point came when she tried to dispel the Tory mantra that Labour caused the financial crash. She said, “If you go back and look at what happened before the financial crash I just don’t think we should buy this Tory myth that somehow it was too many teachers or doctors or nurses under a Labour government to cause Lehman Brothers bank in New York to crash. It wasn’t.”
Polling will close on the 10th of September and the winner will be announced on the 12th September at a special conference.
LM/SKL
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