As the threat from Jeremy Corbyn to the future of the Labour Party becomes ever more apparent it is time to listen to the growing calls for unity before it is too late. Something needs to happen and the first thing is that Liz Kendall needs to end her bid.
Earlier today Dan Hodges called for Liz Kendall to face reality and stand down. It makes sense. Kendall has fought hard in this leadership campaign and made some great points, but she has failed to strike enough of a chord with members. More than that she has no hope of winning. If it wasn’t for Corbyn, who only got in the race by charity nominations, it wouldn’t matter. But we’re in a mess and people need to start doing things to put it right, however, painful that might be.
That brings it down to Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham. One of those two is going to be the candidate who fights it out with Corbyn.
Burnham still feels very much like the candidate who stood and lost last time when he came fourth in 2010. He comes across as solid and dependable. He’s been dubbed by some as the Northern Ed Miliband. It is a cheap shot and maybe unkind, but it feels like it has more than a grain of truth to it.
That leaves Cooper who was today endorsed by Alan Johnson as the only candidate the party can unite behind to stop Corbyn.
“In my view only Cooper can unite the party to win again. Those members who can’t give her their first preference should give her their second. After over a century of male leaders we have an election where the most qualified candidate to lead our party back to government happens to be a woman. Let’s end the madness and elect her.”
Cooper still needs to improve her campaign, but she feels like the best hope that Labour has not only of beating Corbyn, but of going on and rebuilding the party. That needs to be a party capable of challenging the Tories at the next election and winning again in Scotland.
If Labour fails to achieve unity Corbyn could very well win and that means he and his supporters, like the charming CWU’s Dave Ward, will start to remake the party in their own image and it isn’t very pretty.
