Labour leadership candidates speak at first hustings – live news
|
Version 6 of 10. Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy debate in Liverpool Burgon also explained why he did not sign the ten pledges. “I will support the Labour leader in fighting anti-Semitism. “I won’t be signing the ten pledges however because of some concerns I have. “Outsourcing complaints and how that would work in practise. I want to work with all groups.” Butler explains why she has not signed the ten pledges on addressing anti-Semitism and gets a positive reception from the audience. “The EHRC is investigating us at the moment, I am waiting for them to report. “I don’t want to rush this, we have to get this right.” She added: “I hate racism, I have suffered it every single day. “The majority of people in the party are not racist nor anti-Semitic but there are a few which need to be booted out. “I don’t want anyone to be scared about having a debate about racism.” Did you miss the leadership hustings? Here’s a video highlighting the most important moments Allin Khan makes a commitment to fight austerity. She said: “I grow up with one heater in the house and my little brother and I had to move it around room to room in order to stay warm. There are 3,000 homeless children in Wandsworth tonight, which is my borough, I know what hunger tastes like, I know what it feels like to be cold. It doesn’t know or understand regional variation. It matters. You have a commitment from me, an unequivocal one that I will fight austerity with every fibre of my being. That is the reason why I joined the Labour party and that’s the reason why I work in our NHS, and it’s the reason I’m standing to be deputy leader.” All the other candidates have also spoken out fiercely against austerity. Burgon got a big round of applause when he defended Jeremy Corbyn. He said: “I want to speak out against the demonisation of a decent man. There’s no city in this country that knows as much as you do about how newspapers like the right wing Sun newspaper demonised decent people and that’s why I was proud to take the Sun to court, be cross-examined by them for two days, defeat them in court and use the compensation to set up a local internship for young people in Leeds. “Just as they demonised you in this city, they demonised Jeremy.” On the manifesto, he said: “I back our progressive policies in both the 2017 and 2019 manifesto. I do think we need to learn the lesson of this devastating election, defeat because our communities are suffering the consequences.” While Rayner admits there wasn’t an overarching message in Labour election manifesto, she said: “I have nothing bad to say about what we were trying to achieve in our manifesto, which to me was socialism.” In response to a question on party unity, Dawn Butler said: “People talk about unity, but I walk the walk on unity. It’s great everyone is talking about being united, but I walk that walk. I have served under two Labour prime ministers and they don’t come around that often, but we need to get us back there again and we need a Labour government. I have served in the shadow cabinet and I would never, ever, ever, join a coup because no one votes for a disunited party.” Candidates were first asked to spell out the key message from their campaign that can inspire the membersh. Rayner, the current-front runner for the position, said: “The key message is utilising every inch of our movement...energising it, and bringing us together to sell what socialism is about, what the labour movement is about. She added: “My role, my backstory talks about how we can unify the party and we can get behind our leader and that we win the next general election because I don’t think we can wait any longer.” There are five MPs running to be the deputy leader of the Labour party. This includes Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Richard Burgon, Dawn Butler, Ian Murray, and Angela Rayner, who got the most nominations from the parliamentary Labour party. |