Diane Abbott urged beleaguered Labour leader Keir Starmer to campaign to bring back freedom of movement between the UK and the EU today – after a weekend of humiliation at the hands of voters in the party’s Brexit-backing former heartlands.
The hard Left former shadow home secretary urged Sir Keir to return to promoting 10 ‘pledges’ he made when running to replace Jeremy Corbyn early last year, as part of a ‘winning strategy’.
The pledges included one in which he vowed to ‘defend free movement as we leave the EU’, as well as increasing taxes on the top 5 per cent and abolishing Universal Credit benefits.
Her comments are sure to raise eyebrows after a weekend in which Labour was mauled by voters in its former North East heartlands.
Hartlepool, which voted 69.5 per cent in favour of Leave in 2016 – was taken by the Conservatives for the first time in half a century.
In addition, Tory Ben Houchen won a second term as Tees valley mayor with more than 70 per cent of the vote.
There were also Tory victories in Leave-backing Dudley, and for the West Midlands mayoralty, which was retained by Andy Street.
But appearing on the BBC’s Today prgramme this morning, Ms Abbott said: ‘What we want is a strategy for winning from this leadership.
The hard Left former shadow home secretary urged him to return to promoting 10 ‘pledges’ Sir Keir made when running to replace Jeremy Corbyn early last year as part of a ‘winning strategy’.
Her comments are sure to raise eyebrows after a weekend in which Labour was mauled by voters in its former North East heartlands, heaping pressure on party leader Sir Keir (pictured today)
‘It’s clear from what happened over the weekend, particularly from what happened in Hartlepool, there is a problem with the strategy.
I would like to see Keir Starmer return to the 10 policy pledges that he promised when he ran for the leadership, including abolishing universal credit, putting up taxes on the top 5 per cent.
‘We want to unify the party and return to his 10 pledges.’
When it was pointed out that new shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves had demanded an end to freedom of movement as a ‘red line’ for Labour after the 2016 vote, Ms Abbott said: ‘Keir did promise supporting freedom of movement when he ran for the leadership, so he needs to talk to Rachel Reeves.’
Ms Abbott also became the latest Left figure to lay into Keir Starmer over his botched weekend reshuffle.
The pledges included one in which he vowed to ‘defend free movement as we leave the EU’, as well as increasing taxes on the top 5 per cent and abolishing Universal Credit benefits.
The leader has suffered another major blow to his authority amid claims he wanted to shift his deputy Angela Rayner into the health brief after stripping her of responsibility for campaigns – but she refused.
In the end he was forced to give Ms Rayner a new job at the top of the party shadowing Michael Gove, with her allies boasting she is ‘even more powerful’.
Other moves in the overhaul were also far more limited than heralded. In the biggest change, shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds was demoted and replaced by Ms Reeves.
Opposition chief whip Nick Brown and Commons leader Valerie Vaz were also removed from the Shadow Cabinet.
‘I don’t want to be rude but this reshuffle hasn’t been fantastically successful,’ Ms Abbott said.
The leader has suffered another major blow to his authority amid claims he wanted to shift his deputy Angela Rayner (above) into the health brief after stripping her of responsibility for campaigns – but she refused.
‘Apart from anything else, because it has been drawn out it took media attention away from our successes, like Tracey Brabin becoming the mayor for west Yorkshire, like the great result in Wales.’
Labour’s leadership tried to make Ms Rayner ‘carry the can for the poor results at the weekend’, she added.
‘It does seem as if, certainly the people around him (Sir Keir Starmer), don’t understand how the party works.
‘They tried to sack Angela Rayner in order to make her carry the can for the poor results at the weekend.
‘They didn’t seem to realise that because she’s an elected deputy leader, you can fiddle around with her title, but you can’t sack her, she remains a senior person in the shadow cabinet.’
When asked if it was the view of deputy leader Ms Rayner that Sir Keir wanted to sack her, Ms Abbott said: ‘Yes, that’s what all the briefing was about.
‘It was a foolish thing to even think about and he has had to walk it back – you can’t sack an elected deputy leader.’