Liz Kendall is now on the ballot for Labour leader, thanks to the support of Gloria de Piero. The shadow minister for women and Ashfield MP has announced her support for Kendall in tomorrow’s Daily Mirror. As another shadow cabinet minister backing Kendall, it’s a good boost for her campaign on the eve of the nominations opening. Similarly to Kendall, de Piero believes Labour needs radical change:
‘We need someone from the new generation of Labour MPs to be making the case for change in the Labour Party. Liz is asking the really tough questions that we need to ask. She’s recognised the scale of the defeat, that we lost and lost badly. I think it’s absolutely crucial Liz is on the ballot paper.’
De Piero’s backing for Kendall isn’t surprising, given that she accompanied Tristram Hunt, who is also backing Kendall, to his standing down announcement (pictured above). Announcing de Piero her as the 35th nomination is not insignificant: she has done lots of work on appealing to non-voters and addressing public attitudes towards politicians.
She also has a good understanding of what ordinary voters care about. In a previous life, de Piero was political editor of GMTV and in his book Power Trip, former Treasury spin doctor Damian McBride describes why he used to give her early Budget briefings:
‘Gloria always said that the generic briefing I’d given to all the other broadcasters was bullshit and demanded to know how the Budget was going to affect the lives of her millions of viewers.’
As James reported earlier, the mood from the hustings at the PLP meeting today suggested that Jeremy Corbyn and Mary Creagh are unlikely to make it into the contest. Now we know that Kendall is joining Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham on the ballot paper, it appears the race to be the next Labour leader will be fought between a Blairite, a Brownite and a Milibandite candidate.
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