Labour leadership candidates speak at first hustings – live news
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Version 2 of 10. Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy debate in Liverpool In his closing remarks, Sir Keir said he has spent his lifetime campaigning against injustices. “Rising homelessness, people trapped in low pay, global corporations paying next to no tax, I think another future is possible only if we fight for it. “When our movement is united it is unstoppable. “ I never want a night like that 12th December last year ever again for our party.” Nandy concluded: “For 15 years we have been doing the same thing. “We need to make waves, make connections. Why not be the party of the migrant children that inspired me into politics? “I know there hasn’t been a leader who looks or sounds like me, but in Finland and New Zealand it has happened.” In her closing speech, Thornberry said: “It shouldn’t be about who is going to take us to the left, right or centre but who should take us forward. “I think I said I am a tough old bird. I represented the miners in the 1980s, stood up against the Iraq war. I want to be the campaigner in chief.” Phillips said “We could be bold and get back into power in five” rather than take safe option of another Tory government. “When we win elections, we offer optimistic visions for the future that people actually believe in. “We need to be diverse to win. Celebrate immigration, provides cradle to grave care for everyone, never turn our back on Europe.” In her closing remarks, Long-Bailey said “I learnt my politics working in a pawn shop 18 years after Tory rule. You can really see when a government has washed its hands of the people. “We cannot afford to be despondent, we have to urgently rebuild.” She also called for the end of the decentralisation of power in London and the “gentlemen’s club of Westminster”. On climate change, Phillips said: “We have to turn a crisis into a genuine opportunity. “Investment in battery tech which provide jobs. As a mother of two sons with inhalers, this is our children’s lives, we can only do that through investment.” Nandy said: “I saw what they did in Silicon Valley. Providing tax breaks and toughest environmental standards, their young people are designing [technologies] of the future whereas ours are building solar panels on the minimum wage.” Sir Keir stressed “this is a global issue, we need the world to come together.” On Labour’s manifesto, most of the candidates talked about how difficult it was to sell as a package (Lisa Nandy) and said there was just too much in there but they didn’t disagree with any of the policies (Emily Thornberry). In contrast, Jess Phillips was more blunt in her criticism: she talked about how the broadband policy got laughed at on the doorstep, and how there wasn’t enough emphasis on crime in it. It feels like Phillips is shaping up to be the only candidate who is really trying to create some significant ideological distance between herself and Labour’s 2019 policy platform. Long-Bailey championed the “green industrial revolution, the biggest economic lever we have seen in a generation whether tidal power in Merseyside, solar panels on the top of schools and homes.” |