Clive Lewis launches Labour leadership bid with pledge to take the party even further to the left
- Left winger Clive Lewis has launched a leadership bid to replace Jeremy Corbyn
- He claims he wants Labour members to have a greater say on the party’s policy
- He claimed the ‘legacy of the 2000s’ was more unpopular than Jeremy Corbyn
- He admitted that the Labour Party last week suffered ‘it’s own Dunkirk’
Labour’s Clive Lewis launched his leadership bid last night, pledging to take the party even further to the Left.
The shadow Treasury minister insisted Labour lost the election because it failed to convince voters it had made a decisive break with the Blair era.
The ‘legacy of the 2000s’ was more unpopular on the doorstep than Jeremy Corbyn and his policies, he claimed.
Labour’s shadow Treasury minister Clive Lewis has today launched a bid to become leader of the party claiming they had lost last week’s election because they had not convinced voters it had made a decisive break with the Blair era
Lewis claimed Labour voters were more concerned with legacy issues from the 2000s rather than Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership
Launching his bid in The Guardian, Mr Lewis pledged to go further than Mr Corbyn in giving party members a say on policy and the selection of MPs. He said Labour had suffered ‘its own Dunkirk’, but it was possible to come back by bringing hope and reforming the party.
The Norwich South MP wrote: ‘Persuading voters that we understand the sources of their long-held resentment and frustration, of their disappointment in how the Labour Party has conducted itself since the 1990s, will be the first step towards winning back their trust.’
He criticised Mr Corbyn’s ‘prevarication and lack of leadership’ over Brexit, adding that ‘Jeremy’s first promise as leader was never fulfilled’.
Mr Lewis, who is not considered a frontrunner, criticised Labour’s manifesto for being a ‘shopping-list’.