Labour’s first televised leadership hustings were dull and achieved very little

The first televised debate in the Labour leadership contest was a rather dull affair. None of the candidates shone and no one stumbled. Although there were a few moments of interest, everyone conformed to their stereotypes. Andy Burnham was brash and appeared too keen to speak over the other candidates. He spoke about the problems of the ‘Westminster elite’ and how Labour needs to break free from that mould — despite having worked in politics his whole career and even spending time as a special adviser before becoming an MP.

Yvette Cooper was the best performer and gave a good response to the question on the welfare state, citing her own personal experience in the past. But Cooper failed to answer the basic question of why she’s running for Labour leader. She said that the next Labour leader needs to have both ‘experience and new ideas’, but her performance suggested that she can only fulfil one of those criteria.

Liz Kendall positioned herself against the other candidates, saying ‘I’m not Blairite, Brownite, Old Labour or New Labour. I want to be tomorrow’s Labour’. But she was less polished than Burnham and Cooper and did not push herself ahead. Given that she remains the underdog in this contest, Kendall has to build momentum at every opportunity.

Jeremy Corbyn’s presence might have been popular with some of the audience but it confirmed he is not far from being a joke candidate. He just played all the old left-wing tunes.

The only moment of note was a small disagreement between Burnham and Kendall, who are the relative polar opposites in this contest. Burnham said that ‘the party always comes first always’ whereas Kendall said ‘the country comes first’. If Kendall’s campaign can use this to show that Burnham is primarily concerned with the party machine (and by connection, the trade unions) over the interests of the UK, there is an opportunity to paint him as the continuity Miliband candidate.