Telford council leader wants Labour to provide 'aspirational plaftorm'

The Labour Party endured a dismal general election, with Boris Johnson's Conservative Party winning a resounding victory, and a huge majority – taking countless 'safe' Labour seats in the process.

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader since 2015 has since announced his decision to step down, sparking a contest for his replacement, amid reflection and soul-searching over the reasons for the party's crushing defeat.

Confirmed candidates so far include favourite Sir Keir Starmer, Birmingham MP Jess Phillips, and shadow frontbenchers Emily Thornberry, Lisa Nandy and Clive Lewis. Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey was expected to declare her candidacy this week.

Councillor Shaun Davies, Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said he has not made a decision over who to back, and would not until he had met all of those standing.

But he said the party needed to understand why it had been rejected by the voters, and show it can be trusted to run the country.

He said: "This is not just a personality issue. It is about who is talking about the lessons we need to learn from the general election. There are lessons we absolutely have to learn but we do not have to start with a blank piece of paper.

"We are a mass movement of half a million people, that is hugely positive, but importantly we do need to learn the lessons of Brexit – that was a really challenging issue on the doorstep – and people did not like Jeremy Corbyn on the doorstep, we need to understand why that was."

Councillor Davies said he believed the public had not been confident in Labour's manifesto, or in the issues it had prioritised.

He said: "It is about priorities for all of the people in the country who are struggling – with winter fuel, or going to their local A&E and it being in a mess or people struggling with benefits.

"For us to talk about free broadband, for a lot of people they were saying "why are you talking about that when I want more staff at my local A&E or more teachers in primary schools?".

Opportunity

He added: "We have to make sure we have a radical progressive policy platform that people believe we can deliver.

"That position has to be aspirational for our communities and our voters and some of the things we were talking about, and the media were portraying us as talking about, were not aspirational."

Councillor Davies said that a joint leader/deputy leader ticket could be hugely beneficial for the party.

He said: "With the deputy leader there is a real opportunity to make sure that the leadership and the deputy leader, through a joint ticket, compliment each other.

"As a council leader who has a deputy that role is so crucial to be able to complement each other and not compete with each other so it will be interesting to see what comes forward and whether there will be a joint ticket."

Bridgnorth Councillor, Julia Buckley, who stood for the Shrewsbury & Atcham seat in December's election, said she wanted a candidate who could unite the party – and for that person to be a woman.

She also suggested that the new leader may not be the same leader to take the party into the next general election

She said: "I think it would be really nice to have the voice of the regions and not the voice of London and I think that is really important to win back traditional voters.

She added that the party should look at "someone who is more of a centrist, who pulls both sides of the party together".

"We need to take the pressure off ourselves and choose someone with experience who can pull us together, and if in five years time, if that person does not look like they can win an election we can trigger another election and vote for a new leader," she said.