Former Blair adviser: Labour will be "finished" if Rebecca Long-Bailey becomes leader

15 December 2019, 08:40

A former Labour party spin doctor thinks the rumoured ticket of Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon would spell the end of the Labour party.

Andrew Castle said: "I saw a possible ticket from the Corbynite wing of the party and I thought to myself, they wouldn't would they?

"But then I looked at Miliband and I thought they wouldn't, would they?

"And I looked at Jeremy Corbyn, they wouldn't would they? And this is Rebecca Long Bailey and Richard Burgon and I mean, you've got to be kidding me?"

Lance Price replied: "Well, if that was the leadership team, then Labour would be finished."

Andrew Castle asked why.

Price said: "Because they come from such a narrow section of the Labour Party, in terms of in terms of its thinking, never mind anything else and because they represent the kind of politics that has led us to being in the position that it was back in 1935.

"Worse than it ever was under Margaret Thatcher and when Michael Foot was the leader of the Labour Party, and it suggests that the party simply hasn't listened to the message that the electorate gave them this week, last week."

Speaking of who might make the party electable, Price thought it should be a woman and someone from outside London.

Sir Keir Starmer might not be his top choice, he said, because "he's a man in a suit with a north London constituency."