Clive Lewis joins race to replace Jeremy Corbyn with vow to ‘unleash’ Labour
3 min read
Clive Lewis has announced he is standing to replace Jeremy Corbyn saying he will “unleash” the Labour movement.
The shadow Treasury minister said the party had suffered “its own Dunkirk” after a fourth election defeat in a row last week.
And he criticised the manifesto they ran on, saying it “offered a shopping list of rather disconnected policies”.
Mr Lewis, the Norwich South MP, said he was running for the leadership “for a chance to tell the truth” and with a vow to go further than Mr Corbyn in letting members decide party policy.
He is the second candidate to officially declare their candidacy, after shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry threw her hat in the ring on Wednesday.
Other MPs are expected to formally enter the race in the coming days, including Rebecca Long Bailey, Sir Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy.
In an article for the Guardian Mr Lewis wrote: “I’m standing to be leader of the Labour Party for the simple reason that if I don’t, certain necessary truths may go unspoken during the debates of the coming months.”
He added: “In a divided party, there is always a danger that factions will overcome facts; or, with a compromise candidate, that triangulation will trump truth.
"I want to break this cycle: to use the leadership campaign as an opportunity for us all to learn from each other, and to help our party grow.
“That’s the first reason I’m standing: for a chance to tell the truth.”
Pitching himself firmly on the left of the party, Mr Lewis said under Mr Corbyn Labour had failed to win back their traditional base.
He said: “The truth is that while making a clear break with the New Labour era in terms of policy and personnel, the party was never able to communicate this to voters in our heartlands.
“When trying to persuade them of our radicalism and sincerity, we often had the legacy of the 2000s thrown back in our faces.
"Persuading voters that we understand the sources of their long-held resentment and frustration, of their disappointment in how Labour has conducted itself since the 1990s, will be the first step towards winning back their trust.”
'PEOPLE ARE AMAZING'
The 48-year-old former TV reporter said Mr Corbyn’s “first promise as leader was never fulfilled” and the party was “never democratised on the scale or to the extent that members were led to expect”.
He also attacked Labour’s “indecisiveness and triangulation on the Brexit issue”, saying “such prevarication and lack of leadership must never characterise our politics again”.
Mr Lewis, who was first elected in 2015, was appointed shadow defence secretary in 2016 before being shifted to shadow business secretary several months later.
But he resigned over Labour MPs being whipped to support triggering Article 50 the year after.
He finished by writing: “Even at this dark hour, as Labour suffers its own Dunkirk, as retreat is forced on us, I’m an optimist.
“And my hope is founded in the unshakable belief I have in all of us. People are amazing. Given the support, care and time we can do incredible things.
“Our job, in the words of Raymond Williams, is ‘to make hope possible, not despair convincing’.
“Labour can and must offer hope: not the falsehood that it will do everything, but the real promise that it can help us help each other.”
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