“As someone who lived through the 1980s, I don’t want us to go back there again”.
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Speaking at a hustings hosted by the BBC’s Sunday Politics Show, during which Mr. Corbyn defended the ultra-Left government in Greece, Mr. Burnham said: “If he wants a job … maybe not shadow chancellor off the back of what he’s just said… but I think he’s said things in this contest that are important”.
The actual number of people involved in this migration of voters is actually relatively small – only two-per-cent of people who voted in May were Labor to Conservative defectors, but with the British electoral system set up to produce such close races, this change was all that was needed to swing the balance, in addition to the landslide changes in Scotland.
The plan appears to have backfired, after Mr. Corbyn, a champion of Sinn Fein and Hamas, performed better than expected in party hustings, and seems to be appealing to a membership which felt let down by Labor’s defeat at the last election.
The Islington MP had been a 100/1 outsider when he entered the race but a rally of support has put him well in contention. Reports at the weekend suggested Labor MPs were already considering how he could be removed from office if he pulled off a victory.
Yvette Cooper has 41 and Liz Kendall, who has been accused of being a “red Tory”, lags behind with 10.
She said her top team would need to be “serious and credible” as the party fought to regain power in 2020.
He said: “I think the average Labor member has more sense than to elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labor Party”.
Yvette Cooper left the door open to working with Mr. Corbyn without committing herself to remaining in the Shadow Cabinet if he won. “She is respected and liked throughout the Labor movement”.
Labor leadership contender Liz Kendall yesterday rounded on a Sunday newspaper journalist who asked about her weight during an interview.
Acting Labor leader Harriet Harman, plus the leader and deputy leader candidates have been warned the party could be “doomed to opposition” for a long period of time or even “on the road to extinction” if it fails to answer questions about its future direction.
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