8 hours ago
7
Sometimes in politics you have to do the right thing, even if you do not expect success. I am standing to be deputy leader of the Labour party because it is the right thing to do. I’m proud of our party’s traditions, but I fear that we’ve lost our way. We urgently need to speak up for members, for working people and for the communities that our party was founded to represent.
Over recent years, the voice of the Labour left has been diminished. Many dedicated members and representatives have found themselves sidelined, suspended or even expelled. And both the timetable and the nomination threshold of this deputy leadership contest, with the required number of supporting MPs for each candidate doubled to 80 in 2021 by the current leadership, appear set to prevent leftwing candidates from even standing. That is deeply concerning, not because it is about one faction or another, but because it denies our members the open and democratic debate that makes our party strong.
Last summer, millions of people voted for real change. We know what Labour members and voters want to see. We cannot afford to spend energy closing down discussion while the country faces such urgent challenges.
In government we are doing some good things: on breakfast clubs, workers’ rights and nationalising the railways. But these gains have been drowned out, as the party appeared to put a higher value on silencing the left than on developing more policies that meet people’s needs and counter the far right. The upshot of this is the worst showing for Labour in opinion polls in my lifetime, which follows the drubbing we got in the May elections, losing a huge number of real voters.
Our members and voters are disgusted by what they see nightly on their TV screens of the carnage in Gaza. They are also angry about what they see as the British government’s complicity in genocide, especially the refusal to stop all arms sales to Israel and the RAF flights over Gaza. They also see a willingness to meet Donald Trump’s demands for higher military spending at the cost of public services. People expect compassion and principle: welfare before warfare, to protect rather than cut vital support, and to stand firmly against racism and division.
Unfortunately, the current programme, marked by relentless cuts to welfare, military escalation and refusal to tax the wealthy, is not offering that. After 15 years of failed austerity, we know it does not work. Our country cannot be rebuilt on the same failed foundations.
This direction has left us unable to attract or even retain voters. We are haemorrhaging votes in all directions to the Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats. Yet instead of listening to those voters concerns, too often we hear a narrow focus on Reform UK, which risks pulling us further into adopting its rhetoric and policies. Keir Starmer’s speech describing Britain as an “island of strangers” was a particularly painful example of this approach, turning away from Labour’s proud tradition of standing up for solidarity and equality while holding up a megaphone for Reform’s policies.
Labour needs a radical change of course. That does not mean chasing after the far right. It means standing up for working people with clear policies that tackle inequality, protect our communities and put peace, justice and welfare at the heart of what we do. That is why I am standing: to make the case for Labour to get back to its roots.
I voted for a ceasefire in Gaza. I opposed cuts to disability support and resisted attacks on civil liberties, including the proscription of Palestine Action. As deputy leader, I would ensure Labour members’ voices are heard at the top of our party, not pushed aside by undemocratic stitch-ups.
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If we do not listen, we will not learn. And if we do not learn, we cannot win back trust. We cannot out-Reform Reform, but we can become more Labour: unapologetically standing for justice, equality and the people who need us most.
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Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill
