Richard Burden MP: Fighting for a fair deal for everyone in Birmingham Northfield

9 June 2010

Labour Leadership Election -

At lunchtime today the nominations for the Labour leadership election were announced. Five candidates have been nominated: Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, David Miliband and Ed Miliband.

Earlier today I backed David Miliband’s nomination to be the next Leader of the Labour Party.

I left it until this week to submit my nomination because I wanted to listen to what all potential candidates had to say before making my own nomination. A number of party members have also contacted me and I wanted to think too about what they were saying about the role of the leadership in the future of the Labour Party.

All the candidates have strengths but one of the key the reasons I decided to back David is the priority he is giving to developing Labour’s role in local community action. As you may know, this is a theme I have tried to put into practice here in Northfield. It has been a central feature of the local responses we have developed since the collapse of MG Rover five years ago. It has informed our campaigns for greater openness by Birmingham City Council and to give local people more say over things like the New Deal for Communities in Kings Norton. We’ve had some successes but there is still a long way to go. The recent election results show how many people feel disconnected from political parties in general – including the Labour Party. 

You cannot simply import the experiences of one political system into another. But there are lessons we can learn from the ways in which Barak Obama placed local community organisation at the heart of the campaign which eventually led to the White House. Not least, it shows us that an emphasis on local community action can contribute directly to the radical cutting edge which Labour needs to rediscover.

It’s not about watering down our politics. In many ways, it’s the opposite. It’s about doing our politics differently so that the Labour Party is a catalyst for progressive values in a broader movement for change; a movement that reaches out to those who are all too often turned off by conventional party politics.

This is the start of what I am sure will be an interesting and positive debate on the future of the Labour Party. You can find out more about all of the candidates online here. And if you want to find out how – as a party supporter – you can have your say on who becomes the next Leader of the Labour Party then click here.