When I reflect on who should be the next leader of the Labour Party, my initial thoughts are, it should be a female leader. Someone from the North of England with lenience to remain and can take the party towards the centre-left.
Am I wrong wanting a woman leader? It would be great if Labour had a women leader. Labour is dragging behind the world in this regard, and you don’t need to look far, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has stood the test of time.
To say the answer to all of Labour’s problems is to have a women leader might sound a bit patronising. And then to have someone from the North with a specific identity will solve the problems. But, hold on a minute, didn’t millions of voters across the UK vote for a white male, Eaton educated Boris Johnson to be our prime minister?
There have been two Tory female leaders, and I expect Harriet Harman MP, who was one of the outstanding MP’s of her time never took the plunge, is this something she will regret. I feel it was a blight on the Labour Party. However, the Last time we had the opportunity to choose a women leader, in Liz Kendal and Yvette Cooper, both did not do well, who I thought would have been ideal.
Kier Starmer MP has been suggested who I respect, I saw him handle the likes of Michael Gove MP in a panel discussion some years ago.
There are talented leaders in the Labour Party, let us listen to what they have to say before making our decision. Let’s see who puts themselves forward and has the best convincing argument before making a decision. So far Lisa Nancy, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry, Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper are among potential candidates, all great mouth-watering candidates.
Each one will need to properly analyse and set up their stalls on what went wrong and what are their solutions to get it right.
It will be a shame if they are seen through a prism of just being women rather than their expertise and talents.
My final thought is, before deciding who should be the next leader, we should see what position we end up and then match the leader accordingly. Where will we end up? The far left, which is unlikely, centre-left, become more Social Democratic, my choice or Blair right. Anyway, I hope and pray we make the right decision as I fear for the future health of the country under the Conservative Party.