If Not Diane Abbott, Who?

Diane Abbot entered the Labour Party leadership contest live on radio 4 this morning. Taking the Today programme interviewer completely by surprise she said “I’m going to run”.

After looking at the field she asked herself “If not now, when?” and “If not me, who?’”.

So suddenly the contest is transformed from one which started off promising to be the least controversial in history, with a series of sharp suited new labour apparatchiks exchanging pleasantries, a bit like the tedious TV debates between the party leaders for the general election, and with none of them much different to the two similar stuffed shirts leading the new coalition government, into an open contest which may even see mention of the socialism word from time to time, if we hold our breath long enough.

Renowned for being on the supposed left wing of Labour, Diane Abbot will inevitably make political capital out of being female and black, so that at least they don’t field a set of candidates who “all look the same” but she will also be in a position to voice an alternative perspective on issues such as immigration, tackling the budget deficit by taxing the rich instead of cutting services that hit the weakest hardest, and regaining a defensible policy on civil liberties instead of being in the embarrasing position where it is the Tory and Liberal coalition government cancelling Labour’s hated ID card plans.

Diane Abbot’s surprise entry into the leadership race appears to have ambushed previous left candidate John McDonnell who has been criticising the curtailed procedure which requires potential candidates to garner support from at least 33 Labour MPs by Thursday May 27th for an election which will run until September 2010.

Diane Abbott

Claiming the support of women labour MPs as well as left wingers, Diane Abbot had to be corrected by the Radio 4 Today programme after she said that John McDonnell was unable to get the 33 in time. The McDonnell team were quick to insist that he is still working hard to try and get the necessary signatures of support, and now the deadline has been extended from May 27th to June 9th. No doubt there will be some serious horse trading to do if neither of the two left candidates is able to reach the minimum 33 without one of them withdrawing in favour or the other.