Keir Starmer has done a pooled clip for broadcasters about the Gorton and Denton byelection result. In his opening statement he said:
It’s a very disappointing result.
Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term.
But I do understand that voters are frustrated. They’re impatient for change.
And I came into politics – late in life as it happens – to fight for change for those people who need it, the people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to get a doctor’s appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay their bills, and to have a decent and better life.
I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.
I will also fight against the extremes in politics on the right and the left, parties who want to tear our country apart.
The Labour party is the only party that can unite our country and our communities, and we will line up together in that fight against the extremes of the left and the right.
In his pooled interview clip Keir Starmer doubled down on the anti-Green party language he was using during the byelection campaign.
Referring to Reform UK and the Greens, he said:
We were fighting the extremes of the right and the extremes of the left.
He also said Labour was up against “Reform on the right, with their politics of hatred and division, the Greens on the left, with their politics of getting out of Nato in the middle of the conflict with Ukraine, of legalising all drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine to give to adults”.
They were “the extremes in politics”, he said, referring to both parties, claiming that they could “identify the grievances” but that they could not unite the county and solve problems.
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Brian Leishman, the Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, and a constant critic of Starmer, has accused the prime minister of being selfish and politically inept by refusing to allow Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing in the byelection.
Speaking outside Scottish Labour’s one-day spring conference in Paisley, Leishman said:
It shows that the prime minister was firstly selfish in blocking Andy Burnham from standing, because Andy Burnham was the very best option we had of retaining the seat, and it is, make no mistake about it, a safe seat – if there is such a thing. It’s been Labour for generations.
We have lost that because the prime minister and the people that advise him have courted Reform voters. This political idea that we can out-Reform Reform – and that’s what the nation firstly wants, but also needs – is completely wrong. The solutions for the societal problems that we have had after 14 years of austerity can all be found in leftwing proper Labour party values.
The prime minister, I fear, is unable and incapable of actually delivering those Labour party values. He should step down. [I] think he needs to live by his own mantra of putting country before party. And if he resigns, he can actually prioritise both.
Leishman said Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, was right in calling earlier in February for Starmer to quit. Sarwar is facing an uphill battle to win this May’s Holyrood elections after seeing Labour’s support in Scotland plummet as voters punish the party for Starmer’s mistakes.
Let me agree with Anas and everyone in Scottish Labour, this is about Scotland. This is what the holiday elections have got to be about. It’s not a judgement on Kier Starmer. It’s not a judgment on our first 19 months in government, which, again, I have said, has been nowhere near good enough and not up to Labour party values.
But Anas is absolutely Scotland’s best bet for a new direction and to actually give the country the renewal it needs because we are closing in now on two decades of SNP failures.
Keir Starmer has done a pooled clip for broadcasters about the Gorton and Denton byelection result. In his opening statement he said:
It’s a very disappointing result.
Incumbent governments quite often get results like that mid-term.
But I do understand that voters are frustrated. They’re impatient for change.
And I came into politics – late in life as it happens – to fight for change for those people who need it, the people who need an NHS that works for them, to be able to get a doctor’s appointment when they need it, to get the money they need in their pockets to pay their bills, and to have a decent and better life.
I will keep on fighting for those people for as long as I’ve got breath in my body.
I will also fight against the extremes in politics on the right and the left, parties who want to tear our country apart.
The Labour party is the only party that can unite our country and our communities, and we will line up together in that fight against the extremes of the left and the right.
Polanski said he did not expect people to agree with the Green party on everything.
One of my favourite phrases is, if you agree with us on seven out of 10 things, then vote for us, join the party.
If you agree with us on 10 out of 10 things, that’s a bit weird.
He also said he thought it was important for the national conversation that people did not agree with each other all the time.
Q: Would you have won if Andy Burnham had been Labour’s candidate?
Polanski said he and Spencer both changed their views on this as the contest went on.
He said, when Burnham was blacked, he “punched the air” because thought that meant the Greens could win.
But, as the contest went on, he became less convinced that Burnham would have won.
Having seen the anger out on the streets about the Labour party, Andy Burnham is still a Labour politician. And I would say, no matter how popular you are, no matter even if you have some of the right positions, I think people in this country are looking at Labour MPs or high-profile Labour politicians and saying, where are your red lines?
Polanski said that, taking into account Scotland, the Greens have more members than Labour. He said:
When you look at membership numbers, we’re so close to 200,000.
By the way, 200,000 is Green party membership for England and Wales. It doesn’t include Scotland. If you included Scottish Greens, we’ve already taken overtaken the UK Labour party.
But Polanksi also admitted that the a current, up-to-date membership total for the Labour party is not available.
Polanski is the leader of the Green party of England and Wales. The Scottish Greens are a separate party.
Back at the Green press conference, Zack Polanski criticised Labour for the way it attacked the Greens over their plans to legalise drugs. He said drugs were a serious issue. He went on:
We have the highest death rate from drugs in the whole of Europe.
And Keir Starmer, rather than taking a public health approach or looking at harm reduction, thought it sensible to make cheap political attacks.
Now that’s all water under the bridge because Hannah’s sat here as the MP.
But I do hope this Labour government will reflect on how they’ve conducted themselves during this campaign, how they’ve taken some really serious issues, trivialised them and made them into cheap political points.
Whereas actually, I think the public are in a lot more mature and nuanced place than sometimes politicians who have been around for too long and … don’t have the courage to lead.
This is from Kevin Schofield from HuffPost UK quoting a Labour MP responding to what Heidi Alexander said earlier. (See 8.08am.)
Polanski and Spencer then took questions.
Q: What do you say to accusations you were playing sectarian politics?
Spencer said the Greens were doing what they always do, trying to unite people.
And she said she was proud of the fact that she united different groups.
We unite people on the shared common ground and the beliefs that we all have. I’m really proud here that our communities, our backgrounds, may be different sometimes, but we are genuinely united over that common feeling of struggling, and struggling together and sticking up for each other.
Spencer says this was the Greens’ 127th target seats.
That means there are 126 seats where the Greens could win on a smaller swing.
She says the party is on track to make “big gains” in the May elections.
Hannah Spencer starts with thanks to people who helped her to get elected. She says she is honoured, and promises to work “so hard” for the people who elected her.
I can’t wait to get started and work to influence policy that makes lives better for people like us, to bring down the cost of living, introduce rent controls, and get the litter and fly tipping off our streets.
She criticises Reform UK as a party “that dances to the tune of their billionaire donors” and Labour as a party that “stooped so incredibly low”.
She goes on:
I don’t want to dwell on it for too long, but I have been appalled at some of the divisive, dog-whistling campaigning from other parties.
I know in my heart – and everyone knows here – everybody here belongs, everybody deserves to have their needs met, everyone deserves a voice in our democracy.
And today, the people here in this constituency have sent a very clear message. We’ve rejected hate and embraced the politics of hope – not blind hope, hope that is rooted in an ambitious but very achievable plan to transform our country for the better.
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, and Hannah Spencer, the new Green MP for Gorton and Denton, are now holding a press confernce.
Polanski starts by restating his claim that there are now no no-go areas for the Greens. (See 7.53am.)
He says there are 70 days to go until the local elections.
And the Greens have lots of other candidates like Hannah Spencer, he claims.
And he claims Labour is now facing an existential crisis.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
