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| Labour leadership: Starmer, Long-Bailey and Nandy debate in Guardian hustings – live news | Labour leadership: Starmer, Long-Bailey and Nandy debate in Guardian hustings – live news |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the EU agreeing its negotiating mandate for the post-Brexit trade talks with the UK, and the Guardian’s Labour leadership hustings in Manchester | Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the EU agreeing its negotiating mandate for the post-Brexit trade talks with the UK, and the Guardian’s Labour leadership hustings in Manchester |
| Starmer also says the candidates have all agreed not to take quick-fire questions. | |
| Starmer says he thinks Labour lost confidence in the summer of 2015, after the election defeat. This is when Labour abstained on the welfare bill, although he does not mention that specifically. | |
| He says a lot of decisions were taken in this period that had a lasting effect. Someone should write a book about it, he says. | |
| Q: Do you have any political regrets? | |
| Nandy says she does. She worked for the Children’s Society before becoming an MP. They led the campaign against vouchers for refugees. They won some battles. But what they did not do was go out to the public, and win the arguments there. They did not get public support for their cause. | |
| She say the same problem occurred with Brexit. Remain had not made the case for the EU to the public. | |
| She says, because her charity had not won the argument on refugees, the Tories were able to reverse Labour’s policy. | |
| Labour was making arguments about Margaret Thatcher at the last election. That was not relevant to people, she suggests. | |
| She says Labour has to win over the public. | |
| She gets a round of applause. | |
| Long-Bailey says she remembers her dad, a union rep, talking about politics while she listened as a child from the top of the stairs. Then she worked in a pawn shop. She saw how poverty was driving people to pawn their goods. She went to university. But she felt she was getting opportunities that were not available to other people. | |
| Then she remembers taking her mum to a Labour meeting. She thought she would not get involved. But she did, because he was so angry about someone proposing that Labour back charges for hospital meals. | |
| Anushka says she wants to start with the past. | |
| Q: Is there a formative experience that helped you to become a politician? | |
| Nandy says she thinks her mum is in the audience. Her dad is Indian. She says she saw him campaign for race relations. Her mum worked for Grenada TV, on programmes like World in Action. She was a real inspiration too. She says she saw how people can be empowered to do better. | |
| Starmer says there is no one answer to this for him. He says he is suspicious of the idea one single factor applies. He was brought up in a Labour household. His mum got ill, and he spent a lot of time in hospital high-dependency units. His mum was very opposed to private health. She got him to promise that he would not let his dad go private, even though she was very seriously ill. They nearly lost her a few times. | |
| He says his parents were very proud when he went to university. When he went to study law, he did not even know the difference between a solicitor and a barrister. But he discovered human rights law, and was inspired by that. Most of that involved attacking things. But then he went to Northern Ireland, and he worked with the police on turning the RUC into the Police Service of Northern Ireland. | |
| Then he worked for the Crown Prosecution Service, he says. By the time he became an MP, he was worried that something important, the social contract, was being undermined. | |
| We are now on opening statements. | |
| Long-Bailey goes first. She defends the 2019 manifesto, and says if people vote for her, Labour will have a vision, it will have the courage of its convictions, and it will have a path to power. | |
| Nandy says this was not an ordinary election. Nurses and ex-miners who had voted Labour before abandoned the party. She says the party has a narrow opportunity to get things right. It cannot just offer the same again. She says Labour must not just rebuild the red wall, but build a bridge to that future. | |
| Starmer starts by thanking the audience for coming. He is looking forward to the questions. The one burning question is, who can we win the next election. Defeat was devastating for people who needed change. He says Labour has lost four elections in a row, and if it loses the next one, it will have been out of power for longer than any period since the war. Labour can tear lumps out of each other; it is good at that. But if it wants to win, it must unite. | |
| Anushka asks audience members if they think they know who they will vote for. Most hands go up. But then she asks if candidates could say something that would make them change their minds. Almost the same number of hands go up too. | |
| The event is now starting. Sir Keir Starmer, Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey take the stage, along with Anushka Asthana, a former political editor of the Guardian who now presents the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast. There will be a Today in Focus episode about tonight’s event. | |
| The hustings is taking place in one of the larger conference rooms at Manchester Central, the venue used for party conferences. There are 800 people in the audience, and most of them now seem to have arrived. We should be starting soon. | |
| It is raining in Manchester, and the only campaigners outside handing out leaflets to people on the way in were supporters of electoral reform. | |
| Good afternoon. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Aamna Mohdin, and I’m in Manchester for the Guardian’s Labour leadership hustings. | Good afternoon. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Aamna Mohdin, and I’m in Manchester for the Guardian’s Labour leadership hustings. |
| We start at 6.30pm. Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy will all be taking part, and the event will be chaired by my colleague Anushka Asthana. It will run until 8pm. | We start at 6.30pm. Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy will all be taking part, and the event will be chaired by my colleague Anushka Asthana. It will run until 8pm. |
| There have already been 11 official Labour party hustings, although there were complaints that the format (question, 40 second answer, with no debate between the candidates) made them rather dull. There have been several other hustings organised by broadcasters or campaign organisations - you can read about the Newsnight one here, and the Jewish Labour Movement one here - but obviously the Guardian one will be the best. | There have already been 11 official Labour party hustings, although there were complaints that the format (question, 40 second answer, with no debate between the candidates) made them rather dull. There have been several other hustings organised by broadcasters or campaign organisations - you can read about the Newsnight one here, and the Jewish Labour Movement one here - but obviously the Guardian one will be the best. |
| Former Brexit secretary David Davis told the Financial Times that the French have “long had a mythology that the UK is the home of all wild west deregulation.” | Former Brexit secretary David Davis told the Financial Times that the French have “long had a mythology that the UK is the home of all wild west deregulation.” |
| In response to Barnier’s statement that the UK can’t expect the same treatment as Canada because of the close trading relationship and geographic proximity between the UK and EU, Davis said: | In response to Barnier’s statement that the UK can’t expect the same treatment as Canada because of the close trading relationship and geographic proximity between the UK and EU, Davis said: |
| When asked why the EU would shift its position, David said: | When asked why the EU would shift its position, David said: |
| From the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent | From the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent |
| David Henig, the UK director of the think tank European Centre For International Political Economy, has criticised the UK’s government Twitter thread on the EU’s negotiating mandate, saying it is inaccurate. | David Henig, the UK director of the think tank European Centre For International Political Economy, has criticised the UK’s government Twitter thread on the EU’s negotiating mandate, saying it is inaccurate. |
| Steve Baker announced he has resigned as chair of the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs. | Steve Baker announced he has resigned as chair of the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs. |
| In his resignation letter, he said that Boris Johnson “has the policy, the mandate and the majority he needs to deliver an exit from the EU worth having”. | In his resignation letter, he said that Boris Johnson “has the policy, the mandate and the majority he needs to deliver an exit from the EU worth having”. |
| When asked if the months ahead were likely to be the toughest in his career, Barnier said: “It will be difficult, but its already been difficult over the past three years. If you look at the discussion with the UK couple years ago on the financial settlement there were many issues that were controversial.” | When asked if the months ahead were likely to be the toughest in his career, Barnier said: “It will be difficult, but its already been difficult over the past three years. If you look at the discussion with the UK couple years ago on the financial settlement there were many issues that were controversial.” |
| He called for all those involved to look at day to day problems in perspective. He added the EU would not undermine peace in Ireland and was focused on creating a great future relationship with the UK. | He called for all those involved to look at day to day problems in perspective. He added the EU would not undermine peace in Ireland and was focused on creating a great future relationship with the UK. |
| Barnier said: “The UK will be the EU’s third largest trading partner, almost 10 times bigger than Canada. At the same time Canada is some 5,000 km away. It’s clear that the rules cannot be the same. It’s logical, it’s simple. This is not new, there is no surprise.”” | Barnier said: “The UK will be the EU’s third largest trading partner, almost 10 times bigger than Canada. At the same time Canada is some 5,000 km away. It’s clear that the rules cannot be the same. It’s logical, it’s simple. This is not new, there is no surprise.”” |
| Here’s a video from Bloomberg of that clip | Here’s a video from Bloomberg of that clip |
| Barnier said: “We are ready to offer a highly ambitious trade deal to the UK. | Barnier said: “We are ready to offer a highly ambitious trade deal to the UK. |
| “But the UK cannot expect high quality access to the single market if its not prepared to accept guarantees that competition remains open and fair, free and fair.” | “But the UK cannot expect high quality access to the single market if its not prepared to accept guarantees that competition remains open and fair, free and fair.” |
| He added: “There must be robust level playing field, safeguards to avoid unfair advantages social, environmental, tax, and aid state matters.” | He added: “There must be robust level playing field, safeguards to avoid unfair advantages social, environmental, tax, and aid state matters.” |
| He said he quoted the exact sentences that was agreed in the political declaration that was agreed in October. | He said he quoted the exact sentences that was agreed in the political declaration that was agreed in October. |