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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Yvette Cooper team accused of implying Labour needs leader to be a parent | Yvette Cooper team accused of implying Labour needs leader to be a parent |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The campaign manager for the Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall has accused Yvette Cooper’s campaign team of implying that the party needs a leader with a child, rather than a non-parent such as Kendall. | The campaign manager for the Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall has accused Yvette Cooper’s campaign team of implying that the party needs a leader with a child, rather than a non-parent such as Kendall. |
| Toby Perkins, told the BBC on Tuesday: “I think the idea you say that because one of the candidates is a mother, you they are the one you should back suggests a paucity of intellectual argument, which the Labour party should really have moved beyond.” | Toby Perkins, told the BBC on Tuesday: “I think the idea you say that because one of the candidates is a mother, you they are the one you should back suggests a paucity of intellectual argument, which the Labour party should really have moved beyond.” |
| He said he was disappointed with a piece written by Helen Goodman, a supporter of Cooper, for the Huffington Post. The article was headlined, “Why as a parent I’m backing Yvette Cooper as Labour’s next leader”. | He said he was disappointed with a piece written by Helen Goodman, a supporter of Cooper, for the Huffington Post. The article was headlined, “Why as a parent I’m backing Yvette Cooper as Labour’s next leader”. |
| Goodman, in her initial piece, had stressed the importance of parenthood saying: “Much more more important to me than being an MP and shadow minister is that I am a mum. I have two children and although they are both grown up (supposedly) once a mum always a mum.” | Goodman, in her initial piece, had stressed the importance of parenthood saying: “Much more more important to me than being an MP and shadow minister is that I am a mum. I have two children and although they are both grown up (supposedly) once a mum always a mum.” |
| She said she was backing Cooper to be the next Labour leader because “as a working mum she understands the pressures on family life. We need a leader who knows what challenges ordinary people face day to day, and who is committed to helping them”. | She said she was backing Cooper to be the next Labour leader because “as a working mum she understands the pressures on family life. We need a leader who knows what challenges ordinary people face day to day, and who is committed to helping them”. |
| Goodman pointed to issues Cooper was highlighting such as childcare, mental healthcare and children, the “sandwich generation”, and child protection online. | Goodman pointed to issues Cooper was highlighting such as childcare, mental healthcare and children, the “sandwich generation”, and child protection online. |
| Although the Cooper team tweeted out the Goodman piece as a sign of approval, they have stressed that she has always made clear her policy opinions for working mothers, and not that it takes the personal experience of being a working mother to understand these issues. | Although the Cooper team tweeted out the Goodman piece as a sign of approval, they have stressed that she has always made clear her policy opinions for working mothers, and not that it takes the personal experience of being a working mother to understand these issues. |
| The piece led another Kendall supporter to say: “Looking forward to the day someone tells a man they are voting for him because he has a kid and the other guy does not. Will be equally sad then too. “ |