LABOUR leadership contender Yvette Cooper has accused some in the party’s leadership contenders of ‘swallowing the Tory manifesto’ following its election defeat.
Cooper warned against a move to the right, telling the Andrew Marr Show: ‘I will set out ideas for the future that don’t just involve swallowing the Tory manifesto and set out a Labour vision for the future. I think some of our colleagues, in some of the discussions, have been thinking “OK, because we lost the election therefore what we have to do is go to the right”.’
Asked if she was referring to rival Liz Kendall, the shadow home secretary said she did not want to attack individuals. Shadow home secretary Cooper, however, also appeared to take aim at shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, who said last week that Labour had appeared to be ‘soft’ on people ‘who want something for nothing’.
She said: ‘What I won’t do is fall in to what I think is a Tory trap of using language which stigmatises those who are not working. I don”t think that is about Labour values. I think the important thing is to talk about responsibility – responsibility to work, responsibility to contribute – but not to stigmatise those who are unable to work, perhaps because they are too sick or too disabled to do so.’
Cooper said that while in principle she supported Tory proposals to cut the benefit cap to £23,000 a year, she warned there were problems in practice, particularly in London where rents were high. Burnham has meanwhile warned that the party faces becoming ‘irrelevant’.
He told Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics the party cannot assume the general election was its lowest point, saying it could becoming increasingly irrelevant if it doesn’t respond to people”s concerns.
He said: ‘Labour has lost its emotional connection with many people. People look at us and they don’t see people they can relate to.’
Burnham warned against pursuing the ‘politics of envy’, citing the way the party had presented the mansion tax during the election campaign as being problematic, but he backed the 50p top tax rate policy.
He and Blairite Kendall are seen as the current frontrunners in the race to succeed Ed Miliband as Labour leader. Shadow International Development Secretary Mary Creagh has also thrown her hat into the ring. Candidates must get the support of 35 of the party’s MPs in order to stand in the contest, which will be decided in September.
