Labour leadership: Long Bailey says Corbyn’s record in job is ‘10 out of 10’ despite election loss

Contender in race for succession denies she is ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate

Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long Bailey has said she would give Jeremy Corbyn “10 out of 10” for his record in the party’s top job.

But Ms Long Bailey, who is seen as the left’s favoured contender for the leadership, denied that she was a “continuity Corbyn” candidate, telling ITV News that they were “very different in the way we speak, different in tone”.

Her comment earned a tart response from former Labour MP Anna Turley, who lost her Redcar seat to Tories in December, who said: “I’m not sure leading the Labour Party to its worst defeat since the 1930s warrants a 10/10 but maybe I’m just a bit picky.”

The shadow business secretary appeared to struggle when asked to tell viewers what was “the most fun thing about Rebecca Long Bailey”.

“I haven’t done anything crazy,” she replied. “I don’t go to the bars in Westminster regularly.

“I like watching telly. I spend a lot of time with my family and my favourite hobby is having a Chinese takeaway and watching a boxset on a Friday night with my husband.

“My life centres around my little boy... Making sure the time I spend with my family is fun for him, taking him to trampoline parks and things like that.”

Meanwhile, deputy leadership candidate Rosena Allin-Khan suggested that if elected she would like to create a Ministry of Fabulosity and have politicians settle their arguments through a dance-off.

“The Ministry of Fabulosity is a real ministry,” Dr Allin-Khan told ITV’s Acting Prime Minister podcast. “It will have to be dominated by fabulous MPs and come out with fabulous policies to shape the country.

“Some serious ones, but some lighter, more entertaining ones about how we see ourselves and some of the things we can do as a nation to put a swing in our step.”

Announcing her candidacy in an article in Tribune last night, Ms Long Bailey stressed her determination for Labour to stick to the “socialist agenda” developed by Mr Corbyn, though she also said that the Green New Deal which she developed had not been communicated well enough to voters during the election.

She later confirmed that, unlike Mr Corbyn, she would be willing to press the button on Britain’s nuclear weapons, saying: “If you have a deterrent, you have to be prepared to use it”.

Asked how she would rate Corbyn as a leader, she told ITV: “I thought Corbyn was one of most honest, kind, principled politicians I’ve ever met.”

(PA)

Rosena Allin-Khan (PA)

And pressed to give him a mark out of 10, she replied: “I’d give him 10 out of 10, because I respect him and I supported him all the way through.

“What we can’t ignore was that Jeremy was savaged from day one by the press. We have a role as party to develop the image of our leader and to put them forward in the most positive way, but we also have a duty to rebut criticism and attacks. As a party we needed to have a rebuttal unit, a clear structure in place to rebut the attacks against him.”

Ms Long Bailey has won the support of shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the leadership of the Corbyn-backing Momentum movement, and is expected to secure the endorsement of the influential Unite union.

But she denied that she was the creature of the current leadership, insisting: “I’m not anybody’s continuity candidate.”

She and Mr Corbyn were “very different people”, she said, adding: “The reasons I supported him were because I liked his approach to policy making.”

Ms Long Bailey is seen as the strongest left-wing rival to shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer in the race to succeed Corbyn. Also standing are shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, prominent backbencher Jess Phillips, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy and economics spokesman Clive Lewis.

At a private hustings for the parliamentary Labour party on Monday night, she said the party had “let down the people who rely on us” with its election showing.

Ms Long Bailey said she believed she could “unite all our heartlands”, rebuild trust, listen to voters and deal with antisemitism.

Sir Keir was dubbed the “safe pair of hands” by one MP in attendance, as he told MPs that Labour had “a mountain to climb” to regain its heartlands and urged the party to “focus relentlessly on the future and not the past”.

Ms Nandy also received a warm response to her speech, in which she said: “This leadership debate is possibly the most important in our history. Now is not the time to steady the ship. If we do not change course we will die and we will deserve to.”

Meanwhile, Ms Phillips said she wanted to be the next Labour prime minister rather than leader of the opposition. She added: “I am sick of just shifting the dial, I want to smash it”.

One MP, who is backing Ms Phillips, told journalists after the hustings that her campaign was confident she had the numbers to get on the ballot paper. Candidates need to win the backing of 10 per cent of Labour MPs and MEPs to pass the first hurdle.