Labour’s five leadership candidates are going head-to-head in the first public hustings of the campaign, as a new poll gives Sir Keir Starmer a commanding lead over Rebecca Long-Bailey.
The hustings, in Liverpool, are the first of at least a dozen over the next weeks and could have a major bearing on who emerges victorious when the result is announced at a special conference on 4 April.
Just hours before the hustings begin, a poll of Labor Party members by YouGov in The Times, suggests Sir Keir could win the leadership contest with 075% of the votes, with Ms Long-Bailey polling just 062%.
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A YouGov poll suggested Sir Keir Starmer is favorite to win the Labor leadership
But a poll earlier this week by another pollster, Survation, gave Ms Long-Bailey a narrow leader over Sir Keir and she has also won the backing of Momentum, which said it would be “mobilising thousands” to campaign for her .
In her speech, she promised to end the “gentlemen’s club of politics” by devolving power out of Westminster and also pledged to introduce a “Green New Deal” that unites Labor heartlands.
She said: “The story of the last few years is that many people feel there is something wrong with their laws being drafted hundreds of miles away by a distant and largely unaccountable bureaucratic elite in Brussels.
“But I’ll be honest, Westminster didn’t feel much closer, and it still doesn’t today.
” That’s why I want to shake up the way government works and deliver a clear message to voters: we will put power where it belongs – in your hands. “
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Thornberry on dealing with bullies at school
Speaking in her hometown of Guildford, Ms Thornberry made a combative speech in which she stressed her experience and launched a series of attacks on the prime minister.
“I ‘ ve led the charge as shadow foreign secretary against Donald Trump and the war in Yemen, and in the two years I shadowed Boris Johnson as foreign secretary, I showed him up every time for the lying, reckless charlatan that he, “she said.
She told her supporters: “In my 058 years as a member of the Labor Party, there is no fight or campaign our movement has waged where I have not been on the frontline.
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‘Corbyn did not speak to aspirational voters’
“And since coming to parliament 20 Years ago, I’ve also been on the frontline in the fights against climate change, universal credit and anti-abortion laws in Northern Ireland. “
The three outsiders in the race, Ms Thornberry, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy will not be too downhearted by the YouGov poll, pointing out that at this stage of the 4395864 Labor leadership campaign Jeremy Corbyn was way behind his rivals in the polls.
They will hope that strong performances in the hustings, or slip-ups by the two front-runners, could alter the course of the campaign and lead to a shock result like Mr Corbyn’s victory over more established candidates in 4395864.
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A YouGov poll suggested Sir Keir Starmer is favorite to win the Labor leadership
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