Politics

Candidates complain about ‘unfair’ leadership race

Published

11 years ago

September 4, 2015

THE ONGOING entertainment saga that is the Labour leadership contest took a new turn last week, when three of the candidates complained to the party that the election was unfair.

Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham’s campaign managers were co-signatories on an email sent to the party, complaining that they would not receive a list of who was eligible to vote until ten days into the election.

Their claim was that Jeremy Corbyn, who has the support of major Unions, will know which union members have voted before this, and will be able to target them accordingly.

These claims have been denounced by members of ‘Team Corbyn,’ who say that everyone will receive the data at the same time.

This was the latest in a series of attacks from the two ‘centrish’ candidates, and Liz Kendall. In the early days of the campaign, there was an almost gentlemanly feel to proceedings. The candidates publicly disagreed, mostly with Mr Corbyn, while failing to say or do anything to differentiate themselves from the Labour party which lost the last General Election by a margin that even took YouGov by surprise, other than to subtly blame Ed Milliband’s bacon sandwich malfunction.

Mr Burnham said at an early stage that the unexpected show of support for Mr Corbyn was a sign that the Labour party had misread the mood of its members and would-be supporters. He was also the only candidate who, when asked whether he would serve in a Corbyn-led cabinet, said that he would, if it was the will of the party.

However, of late, he has started to question the frontrunner’s policies, claiming that the figures don’t add up. This has not stopped Yvette Cooper issuing a statement to the effect that he should leave the leadership race for not providing an ‘effective alternative’ to Mr Corbyn – a move described as ‘panicked, desperate, and straight out of the Ed Balls handbook,’ by one of Mr Burnham’s staff.

Yvette Cooper has also taken many a swipe at Mr Corbyn’s policies over the last week, describing them as ‘subversive.’ She also claimed that her policies were more radical than those of Mr Corbyn:

“So tell me what you think is more radical. Bringing back clause IV, spending billions of pounds we haven’t got switching control of some power stations from a group of white middle-aged men in an energy company to a group of white middle-aged men in Whitehall, as Jeremy wants? Or extending SureStart, giving mothers the power and confidence to transform their own lives and transform their children’s lives for years to come?” she asked at a speech in Manchester last week.

Liz Kendall, meanwhile, has been in a class of her own. For some ‘unknown’ reason, in spite of consistently finishing fourth in polls, which initially may or may not have been a ploy, the unrepentant Blairite is gaining at least as many if not more column inches than Ms Cooper and Mr Burnham. Her sentiments appear consistent, and can be summed up thus – ‘something something if Corbyn wins, warns Liz Kendall.’ Ms Kendall has also described the prospect of a Corbyn victory as ‘a resignation letter for Labour.’ She has advised her supporters to omit Mr Corbyn’s name from their other choices on the ballot, and cast a block vote for a second choice candidate in an attempt to stop Mr Corbyn should he fail to get 50 percent of the vote on the first count. Such democratic transparency is exactly what the Labour party needs to avoid alienating the new members and associates who have joined since the last General Election.

The most common issue raised by ex-Labour grandees is that Labour should be a party of government, not a party of opposition. This is, on the face of it, confusing when one considers that a party of opposition is exactly what it is going to be for the next five years. Ed Milliband was accused of taking the party too far to the left and, in the words of Chuka Umunna, not being business friendly enough.

This raises two points. Firstly, whether or not anyone actually read the manifesto for the 2015 election bid. The only reasons that Mr Milliband, and especially his Osborne-lite shadow Chancellor Ed Balls could be described as left-wing were:

In comparison to David Cameron and George Osborne
As a result of Unions backing him in the last leadership campaign
Because red rhymes with Ed

The ‘pro-business’ idea is also, on the face of it, rather concerning. It evidently means more than the obvious definition, ie, in favour of businesses. It appears that the return to the Mandelson era of people being encouraged to get ‘filthy rich’ as long as they pay tax is being encouraged.

However, what many commentators seem to be wilfully failing to acknowledge is that the political landscape has changed. Basing policies on the infamous picking up of votes in Nuneaton worked very well when Labour could still hold all their heartlands unchallenged. No one appears to have asked why Labour got wiped out in Scotland, and whether or not those seats were lost due to not being pro-business enough, or possibly as a result of a popular Nationalist movement with a definite Socialist flavour.

As we have pointed out before, voter apathy and UKIP could well be far more important to the future of the Labour party than aforementioned businesses and Nuneaton. Mr Corbyn has been acknowledged as injecting some life into the Labour leadership contest, largely because based on the performance of the other main candidates the party faithful would be torn between an Everton-supporting ‘man of the people’, a ‘feminist’ and a Blairite who missed the glory years. These would have campaigned on a platform of how much better they were than their two opponents. It is hard to imagine a less edifying spectacle. Thankfully, they have been able to unite in the face of a common foe – the Labour left who persist in ‘voting with their hearts.’

Whether or not Mr Corbyn becomes the next leader, this contest has exposed a deep divide between what a number of Labour voters want, and what they are being told by the party leaders that they need. This is something that will have to be addressed. It is commonly accepted that Mr Corbyn will be doomed by a Murdoch-led right-wing media; this ignores the fate of arch-Blairite Gordon Brown. It is safe to assume that whoever gets the nod will fail to get mainstream media backing, unless Mr Murdoch needs a new godfather and David Cameron’s mobile phone is turned off.

If whoever leads Labour can somehow connect with the 45 percent of the population who either voted for no one or UKIP, the gap between everyone digging out their D-Ream CDs in 2020 or Boris Johnson PM could be much closer than is currently suggested.

News

IFS report says Wales lags behind UK on economy and poverty

Published

4 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Jon Coles

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT’s key Child Poverty Strategy lacks clarity, has no reliable way of measuring success or failure, and, crucially, does not account for the Welsh Government’s lack of control over the levers needed to deliver on it.

Those are the findings of a new report by the UK’s leading economic policy research body, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which looks at Wales’s economic performance and poor employment record.

The IFS report, published on Wednesday (April 1), shows that Wales’s economic performance is the worst of the UK nations, with the lowest employment rate, the lowest incomes, the lowest productivity, and the worst poverty levels.

POVERTY STRATEGY LACKS FOCUS

The Welsh Government launched its Child Poverty Strategy in 2018, with five broad aims to reduce child and youth poverty. However, the IFS criticises how those aims have been set out, finding that the definitions are too broad to be measured accurately and lack focus. In particular, the IFS says the strategy’s aims are so nebulous that they ignore the impact of policy areas over which the Welsh Government exercises direct control, for example, health and education, on how outcomes might be measured.

The IFS report says: “Issues with the data mean a material risk that the Welsh Government might either appear to have met a future poverty target or missed it, by a large margin, when in fact the reverse is true.”

WG NOT IN CONTROL OF OWN POVERTY STRATEGY

In any event, several of the most direct policy levers available to influence employment and earnings, including minimum wages, employment law and benefits policy, are reserved to Westminster. However, even if these policy levers were available, it would be very challenging to achieve large, rapid reductions in child poverty with them. In addition, Labour has ruled out using the tax system to generate additional income to help it meet its aims.

Wales’s highest-earning regions are along the North East Wales border with England and in the Cardiff and Newport areas. In addition, proportionately more Welsh employees are public sector workers, who are also, far and away, the best paid in Wales. The average public sector wage is around £5,000 higher than the average private sector wage. And those jobs, too, are disproportionately centred in Cardiff, Newport and North East Wales. The best-performing areas by employment rate, Monmouthshire and Newport, are within easy reach of the English border.

POVERTY CONCEALED BY LOWER PROPERTY VALUES

Compared with the rest of the UK, the gap between men’s and women’s pay is lower in Wales, as are the differences in income and in the highest and lowest property prices. However, property prices are far lower in Wales than in England, as are incomes overall; in addition, there are so few higher-rate tax earners in Wales that the Welsh Government increasing their income tax would have a negligible effect on its revenue. In addition, because Welsh housing prices are much lower than elsewhere in the UK, and because housing costs are a factor in how poverty is measured, housing costs improve one of the key poverty metrics.

News

Carol Vorderman urges Welsh voters to reject Reform UK ahead of Senedd election

Published

5 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Tom Sinclair

TV presenter and commentator to appear at Cardiff event aimed at mobilising anti-Reform voters before May 7

CAROL VODERMAN has urged voters in Wales to reject Reform UK at next month’s Senedd election, as she prepares to appear at a live political event in Cardiff focused on keeping the party out of power.

Speaking ahead of an emergency Guilty Feminist Welsh Election Special at the New Theatre, Cardiff, on Sunday, April 12, Vorderman said Wales faced a crucial choice at the ballot box.

She said: “Wales has a chance for a new beginning in May. But Reform, the chaotic London-based, privately educated, failed Tory party, needs to be sent packing.

“Already numerous of their 96 Welsh candidates have resigned or been sacked for revolting actions. Their last Welsh Reform leader Nathan Gill is serving time in jail for accepting Russian bribes while serving in the European Parliament. Their new Welsh leader was a Tory living in London until a few months ago.

“Farage is a thin-skinned and proven liar. Everyone must come out to vote to save our country. Cymru Am Byth.”

Vorderman is due to appear alongside Guilty Feminist host Deborah Frances-White, with Welsh comedians Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Priya Hall also on the bill. Organisers say the night will mix comedy, music and political discussion, with the aim of building strategy ahead of the election.

Frances-White said polling suggested the Senedd result could be close and argued that “it really matters who ends up making decisions about our lives”, adding that the event was intended as a “get-in-the-room” night to work out how to respond.

Reform UK’s current leader in Wales is Dan Thomas, who was unveiled by Nigel Farage in Newport in February. Thomas is a former Conservative leader of Barnet Council in London, although he grew up in Blackwood.

Vorderman’s reference to Nathan Gill points to a highly embarrassing chapter in the party’s recent history. Gill, a former Reform UK politician and ex-MEP, was jailed last year after admitting taking bribes from pro-Russian figures in exchange for speeches and statements in the European Parliament.

Asked for a response to Vorderman’s remarks, a Reform UK Wales source replied briefly: “Does she even live in Wales?”

It was a short answer, but perhaps not one likely to end the argument. With the campaign heating up, and with high-profile voices now piling in from outside formal party politics, the battle for attention ahead of May 7 is only getting louder.

Business

Calls for award-winning Pembrokeshire sauna to be permanent

Published

10 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Bruce Sinclair - Local Democracy Reporter

CALLS to allow the permanent siting of an award-winning Pembrokeshire seaside village outdoor sauna, which has been featured in the national press, have been submitted to the national park.

Back in June 2024, a temporary two-year permission for a mobile wood-fired sauna at Saundersfoot harbour was granted by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park’s development management committee.

Since then, a further application by Kerry Evans of Hwyl Outdoor Sauna to make the siting permanent has been submitted to national park planners.

A supporting statement says, since its introduction the sauna has “become a popular and valued amenity for both residents and visitors, offering a space focussed on health, wellbeing and community connection”.

It went on to say: “The overall sentiment within the village has been strongly supportive, with many residents recognising the sauna as a valuable asset that enhances the amenities in Saundersfoot,” adding: “Hwyl Outdoor Sauna has received positive attention in regional and national press helping to promote Saundersfoot as a destination for coastal wellbeing and outdoor experiences.

“Media coverage has highlighted the sauna as an example of the increasing popularity of sea swimming and sauna culture around the UK coastline.

“Hwyl Outdoor Sauna has been featured in two books on the best saunas in the UK.

“The business has also been recognised through tourism and hospitality awards, further demonstrating the quality of the experience provided and the positive contribution it makes to the local visitor offer.”

Back in February, the business, set up by former superyacht worker and mum-of-two Kerry won Sauna of the Year 2026/27 at the Wales Prestige Awards.

At the time Kerry said: “I could not be more proud of what I have achieved with Hwyl. I am so grateful to my wonderful team, who have made this journey not only possible but genuinely so much fun.”

Kerry ploughed a legacy from her beloved late father into the venture of a Pembrokeshire seafront sauna.

The application for allowing the sauna to be permanent added: “Through the Welsh Government I have been able to secure the funds to install a cold-water shower on Saundersfoot Harbour, which will be open year-round. This will be achieved via Hywel Outdoor Sauna and a weather proofing fund, from the Welsh Government. This facility has also a GoFundMe to raise the remaining costs.”

It concludes: “Hwyl Outdoor Sauna has established itself as a valued wellbeing facility that benefits both residents and visitors. It enhances the amenities available in Saundersfoot, supports the local economy by encouraging additional visitor activity, and contributes positively to the community through charitable support and engagement.

“The permanent siting of the sauna would allow this successful local small business to continue operating and provide these benefits to the village in a stable and sustainable way.”

The application for a permanent facility will be considered by park planners at a later date.