Letter from Parliament - Simon Danczuk MP

Photo: Journeaux

Simon Danczuk

It would be hard for me not to pass comment on Labour’s leadership contest.

Obviously, this is a tough time for the party after having suffered a terrible General Election defeat – and we need to get a convincing leader in place quickly to put Labour on the right track for government.

I’m not convinced a huge swing to the left and reheating 1980s-style politics is what the country is crying out for.

Labour has to reach out to the whole country not retreat into its heartlands and hide under a comfort blanket.

As someone who grew up in the 1980s I well remember going to see Michael Foot and Arthur Scargill make impassioned speeches. They were electric and we all felt good about ourselves, but they didn’t take the country with them at a time when we had a very poor Thatcher government that was seeing unemployment rocket.

That’s the lesson the left still has to learn today. If Labour becomes irrelevant as an electoral force then we give the government free rein to become ever more right wing and punish places like Rochdale.

We need to be outward looking, in touch with the national mood and not chained by dogma to show we’re ready to govern.