Labour party contenders give their view

Sep 19 2010 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

Last week David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham told Sunday Sun readers why they should be the next leader of the Labour party. Today the final two candidates in the leadership race, Diane Abbott and Ed Balls, explain why they are the right person for the job.

Diane Abbott

AT the very beginning of the leadership campaign, my rivals and I visited Newcastle.

It is a part of the world where people are always very warm, and this visit was no exception.

We visited in June – just days after the Lib Cons delivered what we now know to be one of the most unfair Budgets in recent history.

We all spoke about how George Osborne’s decision to cut benefits, freeze public sector pay and abolish many Labour devised cuts was wrong, but we had little evidence then to say exactly how this would affect people in real terms.

Now, two months on, we now know the reality of how hard the poorest will be hit, particularly women.

Women will pay a huge £5.8 million; double that of men, who will contribute £2.2 million.

As the only female on the ballot, I cannot sit by and see women shoulder the biggest burden of the cuts.

Nor can I sit back and see more than one million women living in the North East directly affected as a result of the cuts made in the Coalition’s Budget, without saying something.

Whether it is through a cap in housing benefit, a cut to the child tax credits, or through a pay freeze at work – women are the losers in this unfair budget.

Statistics also show that double the number of women work in the public sector than men in the North East – 225,000 women compared to 129,000 men.

This means more women will fall prey to pay freezes than men, and are twice as likely as men to lose their jobs through Government cutbacks.

It is unfairness like this that reminds me even more why I joined this leadership contest and the Labour Party originally, 30 years ago.

I joined to fight this sort of injustice, and to provide a voice for people who otherwise would not get heard.

The other candidates have never worked outside the Westminster bubble. I have. And for 18 years, I have been a single mother bringing up a son on my own.

If I am leader of the Labour Party, I will build on the great achievements of the past 13 years but reject the “top down” politics that disfigured New Labour in the end.

One of the problems with New Labour was that it became obsessed with the City of London.

I would have a strong regional policy designed to diversify and strengthen economic growth in all regions of the country.

I would campaign to keep the regional development agencies that did so much to help the North East.

I would support transport infrastructure like a high speed rail link and I would invest for growth.

The North of England has a large proportion of workers who are in the public sector, and there are millions more who are in the private sector but whose jobs are dependent on Government contracts.

I think that public expenditure cuts on the scale that the Government is planning are completely unnecessary and will have a terrible effect on regions like the North East.

People will not only lose their services, they will lose their jobs.

The Tories don’t seem to understand that in a modern economy the private sector and the public sector are intertwined and you can’t slash one without damaging the other

The Tory-led Coalition is increasingly unpopular and the cuts have not really impacted as yet.

I will be the leader that demonstrates that the party is ready to move on.

I will be a fighting leader who will listen to the people and bring Labour back to power.