Defeated Labour MPs call for 'unflinching' review of election drubbing as they blast 'cronyism at the top'
3 min read
Labour must "look unflinchingly" at its general election defeat and tackle "cronyism at the top" of the party if it is to ever recover, according to a group of defeated MPs.
In a hard-hitting intervention, the group calls on Labour to go "way beyond a simple review" of its performance at the snap poll, which represented the party's worst general election showing since 1935.
And they warn that the party's "repeated unwillingness to stand up to the stain of antisemitism" left campaigners struggling on the doorstep.
The team of ex-MPs and candidates make their call in a letter to The Observer newspaper.
They include the ex-MP for Wakefield Mary Creagh, former Wolverhampton North East MP Emma Reynolds, former MP for Redcar Anna Turley, and Dr Paul Williams, the former MP for Stockton South.
A separate Labour Together group has already announced a major review into why Jeremy Corbyn's party performed so badly earlier this month, with former leader Ed Miliband forming part of that inquest.
But the group calls on Labour to go much further, saying: "The scale of this defeat means we have to look unflinchingly at what went wrong, way beyond a simple review, welcome as that might be."
Taking direct aim at Mr Corbyn, who is due to step down as leader in March, they say: "We need to be honest about why our outgoing leadership’s reflexive anti-western world view was so unpopular, and address the reasons for that unpopularity.
"We were rejected on doorsteps not just because of our woolly, changing position on Brexit, or in Scotland, because of our weak commitment to the union, but because the very people we were supposed to be fighting for did not think the policies in our manifesto related to their lives."
They add: "The focus on nationalisation and uncontrolled spending commitments meant people simply didn’t believe us. Sadly, this was particularly true with those most affected by the poverty and injustice that 10 years of Tory government has created."
“Lastly, the cronyism at the top of our party and repeated unwillingness to stand up to the stain of antisemitism was constantly relayed back to us on the doorstep, shaming the traditional values of our once great anti-racist party."
Arguing that they have a "duty to speak up now", the group argues that "fundamental change" will be needed to help Labour appeal to voters who deserted the party at the ballot box.
"Labour needs to be in government - and for that, fundamental change at the top of our party is required," they say.
"Only this will help us recover from the catastrophic loss.”
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The letter has also been signed by former MPs Phil Wilson, Gerard Killen, Martin Whitfield, and Sheila Gilmore, as well as former Labour candidates Mary Wimbury, Ashley Dalton and Kate Watson.
And the intervention came as Labour's Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham warned that his party was at risk of becoming a "red version of the Liberal Democrats" unless it returned to "credible" policies.
In an interview with LBC, the former health secretary said Labour risked becoming a "shrunken political party".
And he said of Labour's defeat: "You could see it coming. This is the London-centric nature of the Labour party, that’s been going on for a long time.
"In recent years, Labour has been speaking to the liberal, university educated left, not its working class side. I’m afraid this result reflects that."
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