Labour leadership hopefuls must face up to reality, says STEPHEN POLLARD

Remember Liz Kendall? Four years ago she ran for the Labour leadership with an unambiguously moderate and modernising message – and came last, with just 4½ percent of the vote. Labour members decided that, instead of embracing change and positioning the party to win an election, they would rather have a leader who massaged their ideological erogenous zones.

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Tue, Jan 7, 2020 | UPDATED: 14:59, Tue, Jan 7, 2020

But despite the total defeat of her message back then, Liz Kendall’s 2015 leadership campaign is more relevant today than ever. Labour, she argued, had to change fundamentally. The party was out of touch both with its roots and with swing voters and it needed wholesale reform.

She might have failed to convince Labour members but it should be clear now to all but the most committed Corbynites that her analysis was right. 

As Labour looks again for a new leader, the most important question is this: Where is today’s Liz Kendall? 

Worryingly for the party, none of the declared candidates, or any of those tipped to stand, seem to be willing to confront the party with the reality of why it lost the general election and the changes it needs to make. 

That matters not just to the Labour Party but to all of us – because democracy needs at least two serious parties to be competing for government. 

We don’t have that now. 

The Tories didn’t win in December because of a wave of euphoric enthusiasm for Boris Johnson or his party but because many traditional Labour voters were not prepared to put their once-favoured party into power, plus they wanted Brexit. 

They largely regarded the Corbynites who run Labour as beyond the pale. 

It seems clear that Mr Johnson understands this. 

He has spoken repeatedly of the Conservatives only being “lent” these votes and has stressed that he will seek to convince them to stick with the party. 

Hopefuls Sir Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips (Image: BBC)

Labour hopeful Lisa Nandy (Image: Getty)

Although the Conservative prime minister grasps this, one wonders how many of the Labour leadership contenders really do too? 

They mouth platitudes about regaining the trust of voters, but there is nothing to suggest that any of them are prepared to look deep into their own and their party’s soul and accept that there is something fundamentally indecent that needs to be expunged. 

All the candidates who have declared so far – Sir Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips – keep talking about unity. 

Sir Keir, the early favourite, spoke at his launch about the need to “put factionalism and division to one side and unify around a radical programme”. 

Even Mrs Phillips, whose message is that she is the only candidate who truly connects with ordinary voters, has spoken of the need for the party to come together. 

It is all very warm and comforting. 

Moderate Liz #4percent Kendall and Jezza the Red (Image: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty)

But it is also entirely wrong. 

Labour didn’t lose in December because it wasn’t unified. 

It lost because it has been taken over by the hard-Left, an ever-present wing of the party but one which had previously been marginal. 

It was precisely because in previous generations Labour wasn’t unified that voters were able to trust it. 

In the 1980s, when the hard-Left became influential, Labour was only able to regain trust and return to electability when Neil Kinnock took on and defeated Militant and its allies. 

Any future leader will have to take on the Corbynites or Labour will rightly remain in the wilderness. 

Not only is there no evidence that any of the candidates are willing to do this but the evidence points to the very opposite: that they want the moderates, the hard–Left and everyone in between to join together as a unified party. 

Parliament needs a serious opposition to function properly. 

The Government might think life would be easier without an opposition, but it’s actually in its interests to have grown-up politicians on the opposition benches who will test legislation and ideas properly, rather than just yelling “austerity” and “nasty Tories” as if that constitutes an argument. 

It’s still early days – so it’s not too late for at least one of the candidates to make clear that they understand reality. 

Yes, it will be difficult as it will mean telling the members who voted for the incumbent leader that they have been misguided and wrong. 

My hunch is that only Jess Phillips has it in her to say this. 

She has made her name by allying a welcome bluntness with wit and charm. 

She will need that in spades over the next few weeks. 

But if she fails to rise to the occasion, Labour will be lost. 

https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1224828/labour-leadership-contenders-jeremy-corbyn-latest-news