Liz kendall

The odd thing about the Labour leadership contest is that while it runs, two of the most different candidates, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham, must work together in the Shadow Health team. Today they had a chance to show how well they perform in the Commons, speaking within minutes of one another at the first questions of the new Parliament. Kendall asked about access to GPs, asking Jeremy Hunt why he had failed to meet his promises in this area. Her delivery was not particularly confident: she read her question and was nowhere near as forceful as Burnham, who came later. Hunt congratulated the Shadow Health Minister on her return

Yvette Cooper may lack some of Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall’s momentum but she remains a formidable opponent in the Labour leadership contest. On the Andrew Marr Show this morning, Cooper was quizzed on how enthusiastic she is for the job, given her late entry to the contest: ‘I want to make sure that Labour leads and wins again and I think I’m the right person to do that because I think I can be the strongest in terms of taking on David Cameron. I also think 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

In many ways, Yvette Cooper has a perfect CV for Labour leader: a wealth of experience in government, not factional, respected by colleagues (except those who had a habit of moaning that she was, er, working on her leadership bid when in Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet), well-known in the party membership, capable of delivering a jolly good speech that cheers up a grumpy conference and capable of using her long experience to trip up Theresa May when the Home Secretary is trying to get up to some funny business in the Commons. But the leadership candidate’s covering letter for her CV is a bit less exciting, because no-one really knows what she

Now that Liz Kendall has enough MPs backing her to make it on to the ballot paper for the Labour Party leadership contest, the three main candidates are all starting to think about how to appeal to those party supporters who will vote for the leader. This involves contacting constituency Labour parties, trade union branches and so on in order to canvass. Each of the three main candidates also needs to overcome a key perceived weakness. For Andy Burnham, it is that he is the trade union candidate and just a populist figure of the Left. For Yvette Cooper, it is that her experience which her supporters see as a

Despite her early entry, Liz Kendall’s leadership campaign is failing to keep up with rivals when it comes to noise and backers. Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham have emerged as the early favourites, while some are wondering if Kendall can persuade the necessary 35 MPs to back her — particularly if Tristram Hunt runs and splits the moderate vote. But I understand her campaign remains confident they will make the cut. ‘The current direction of travel is that the final ballot will be Burnham, Kendall and Cooper,’ says a Labour source. ‘But, in the PLP nothing is set in stone — not even Ed stone’. The official nominating process does

With Chuka Umunna out, the choice for Labour party members is simple. If they want to win the next election they will choose Liz Kendall as their next leader. There is a very simple test for suitability for the job: their reply to the question ‘did the last Labour government spend too much money?’ Kendall is the only one who has passed. On yesterday’s Newsnight she was straightforward: yes, Labour did spend too much. Yvette Cooper, by contrast, said on Radio 4 this morning: ‘I think there were things that we were spending wrongly on, there were issues that we would have been spending money, too much money on –

Labour is in a more difficult position now than it was after its defeat in 1992. In ’92, the electorate had sent Labour a clear message: move to the centre, don’t say you’ll put up taxes and get a better leader. But this time round, the message Labour has been sent is more complicated. There are three groups of voters that Labour failed with at this election, I argue in the magazine this week. Aspirational voters who went Tory, the left behind working class who went Ukip in England and SNP in Scotland and Nationalist-minded ones north of the border. What the Labour leadership candidates have to explain is how

In an interview with Andrew Neil, Liz Kendall has confirmed that she’s running for Labour leader. In a polished performance, Kendall set out why she believes education has to be at the centre of Labour’s message, arguing that is what enables people to get good jobs and earn decent wages. She also subtly reminded people of her doubts about the whole Miliband strategy and message by quoting her own warning—delivered back in January—that Labour couldn’t afford to just sound like the moaning man in the pub. Going by her performance today, Kendall is going to be a formidable candidate. She combines good media skills with detailed policy knowledge, she has

David Cameron is facing calls from Labour to discipline a local council candidate after they dressed as Oscar Pistorius for a costume party. Gregg Peers – who is standing for the Conservatives in a Cumbria County Council by-election – posted photos of himself in the fancy dress on his Facebook page. Labour’s Liz Kendall has said the Prime Minister must ‘show he takes violence against women seriously by taking immediate action against his candidate’. The MP for Leicester West adds that ‘the Conservatives must explain why they promoted him to senior positions in their party’. But isn’t it time for the Labour party to also show that they take violence against women seriously?

Andy Burnham’s interview in The Times today lays down several markers. He praises Len McCluskey, declares that trade union funding is best for Labour, slates Alan Milburn, criticises Peter Mandelson for being relaxed about people getting filthy rich and distances himself from the Blairite mantra that ‘what matters is what works.’ It will, to put it mildly, do nothing to discourage speculation that he is preparing to run for the leadership on a left-wing ticket if Labour loses the election. To be fair, Burnham is frank in this interview that he has changed his mind on various subjects. As he puts it, ‘There was a period in the 80s and

Liz Kendall is a real rising star in the Labour party. Few colleagues have a bad word to say about her, and indeed many have a great deal of good words. Tonight the House magazine publishes an interview with the Shadow Health Minister that contains a number of rather strong comments that she’s made about the party that she has a good chance of one day leading. The line that’ll get most attention is this: ‘You can’t be the moaning man in the pub. Actually the moaning man in the pub often has a real point underneath it all. But mostly you end up not listening.’ And then there’s the