The five candidates for Labour leader have clashed over anti-Semitism, Brexit and more in the first hustings of the contest.
The wide-ranging 90-minute debate in Liverpool was the first of a string of events before nominations from local parties and affiliates close mid-February.
Members will then vote for a winner declared on April 4.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Keir Starmer, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry all pleaded for party unity as they stand to replace Jeremy Corbyn.
But they clashed on key issues including the anti-Semitism crisis.
Here are the 10 things we learned as they faced off.
1. They want to end the days of ‘f*** off and join the Tories’
(Image: Getty Images)
Labour leadership candidates issued a plea for party unity.
Left-wing candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey told the audience divided parties do not win elections. She said members must not call other members a “cult” or tell them to “F- off and join the Tories.”
“We have to be honest that over the last four years we haven’t been united,” she added.
Jess Phillips, a prominent critic of outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn , said the “name calling within the party has been horrendous” and called for Labour to build a “broad team”.
“Sometimes the membership felt they were not being included and in fact that’s been the case for a long time,” she said.
Emily Thornberry said Labour members should stop fighting each other and concentrate on fighting the Tories.
“We need to be in power. The country is crying out for an alternative government and it will not happen unless we are united,” she said.
Sir Keir Starmer agreed there had been “too much division”, adding: “We are unstoppable when we are united.”
Drawing repeatedly on his time as Director of Public Prosecutions he said: “Stop asking the question which bit of the party are you from and start asking – what are you saying.
“If we can do it for an election campaign we can do it as a party. I’ve run an organisation where I’ve changed values and culture. You have to model it from the top.”
2. But they clashed fiercely on anti-Semitism
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
All five leadership candidates signed the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ 10 pledges to deal with anti-Semitism.
But the hustings was hit by a row after Jess Phillips took a furious swipe at rivals’ alleged silence over the issue.
The bookies’ long-shot slammed fellow candidates who she accused of failing to speak up about the party’s crisis while they were in the shadow cabinet.
Three rivals – Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry and Keir Starmer – are in Jeremy Corbyn’s top team. The fifth candidate Lisa Nandy is a backbencher.
“The Labour Party needs a leader who has spoken out against anti-Semitism, and other forms of harassment in fact, when others were keeping quiet,” she said.
“I don’t remember some of the people here being in that particular room or being in those particular fights.”
Emily Thornberry and Keir Starmer hit back at Ms Phillips – both insisting they spoke out about the problem. Ms Long-Bailey had already given her answer but has previously said the party’s response was not good enough.
Ms Phillips also took a swipe at left-wing favourite Rebecca Long-Bailey – who recent polls suggest is in a two-horse race with Sir Keir Starmer.
She said she was “literally laughed at on the school run” about Labour’s broadband policy – overseen by Shadow Business Secretary Ms Long-Bailey.
And she hit out at Ms Long-Bailey’s plan to replace the Lords with an elected Senate based outside London. Ms Phillips said: “We’ve got to speak the language people speak on the doorstep.
“No one talks about federalism or wanting this Senate or that Senate. We’ve got to start talking like people talk, about the things they actually talk about.
(And two deputy candidates won’t sign the pledge)
Deputy leader candidate Richard Burgon declared “I have not signed and won’t be signing the 10 pledges” from the Board of Deputies on dealing with anti-Semitism.
He said he’s “concerned about outsourcing our complaints procedure” and claimed the approach could be marginalising black and LGBT Jewish voices.
Fellow deputy candidate Dawn Butler has also not signed the 10 pledges. She said she wants to see the Equalities and Human Rights Commission report and deal with that first.
“I don’t want to rush this. It’s too important to rush it – we have to get it right,” she said, to huge cheers.
3. They staked out their positions on Brexit
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The candidates also clashed on Brexit .
Remainer and second referendum backer Ms Thornberry demanded a candidate who had “frankly been on the right side all along”, while Ms Phillips said Labour could not “turn away from Europe”.
But Ms Nandy said nuance on Brexit had been “airbrushed” out of the debate. Remainer Sir Keir added: “We can’t now let Brexit tear our party apart for the next 10 or 20 years.”
4. They all want to take on the media instead of ‘wading through s***’…
(Image: PA)
Candidates vowed to take on media coverage of Labour – with Sir Keir committing he would not be interviewed by The Sun newspaper.
Ms Long-Bailey said she was a victim of “smears” over her position on abortion and would talk to “fair” journalists but not others.
Ms Thornberry said: “The Daily Mail have been employing people full time trying to cut me off at knees. I’ve had a whole van load of Sun journalists turn up at my house at one stage.
“I’m afraid I have a boring life, there’s nothing else they can do.”
Ms Thornberry added: “Being leader of the Labour Party in opposition is, quite frankly, the worst job in the world.. we have to wade through an awful lot of s***.”
5… Which asked Jess Phillips to pose with bacon
(Image: Evening Standard / eyevine)
Jess Phillips had perhaps the strangest interaction with the media so far – when someone asked her to recreate Ed Miliband’s most famous moment.
She revealed: “I was asked to hold a bacon sandwich in a photo the other day. I refused.”
- Keir Starmer – 1/3
- Rebecca Long-Bailey – 5/1
- Lisa Nandy – 8/1
- Jess Phillips – 25/1
- Emily Thornberry – 50/1
- OUT: Clive Lewis
Odds Jan 13 from Ladbrokes. For full profiles and how the contest works click here.
Deputy leadership candidates
- Angela Rayner
- Richard Burgon
- Rosena Allin Khan
- Dawn Butler
- Ian Murray
- OUT: Khalid Mahmood
6. They revealed what keeps them awake at night
(Image: Getty Images)
The final question was what keeps candidates awake at night. And apart from the snoring of Rebecca Long-Bailey’s husband, the answers were deadly serious.
“What keeps me awake at night is where this country is going,” said Lisa Nandy.
She lamented the “collapse of our public services” and the future of her young son: “Everything is just so achingly heartbreakingly familiar. I do not want him to be 17 like I was before he sees his first Labour government.”
Rebecca Long-Bailey highlighted inequality and the climate crisis, while Ms Thornberry said Labour had to be a “fighting machine”.
Keir Starmer said he was troubled by the “frustrations of opposition” adding: “I’ve never known a time when we’ve so radically needed a Labour government”
And Jess Phillips revealed she was kept awake by an abuse victim who fled to a refuge turned to her before the election to say: “I like that Boris Johnson .
“I think I’ll vote for him.”
7. Jess Phillips and ‘tough old bird’ Emily Thornberry both think they have the personality to beat Boris Johnson
(Image: PA)
Ms Phillips said she could give “no reassurance” to people until 2024 now Boris Johnson has a majority – but insisted she was the big personality to take on the PM.
Labour could not have “an intellectual argument” when Tories are “talking about bells, not NHS waiting times,” she said. “We’ve got to do something bold. And Boris Johnson would be terrified to face me.”
“Boris Johnson is scared of what he doesn’t understand,” she added. “He literally can’t understand what I’m saying sometimes.”
Ms Thornberry also claimed she had the “tough old bird” personality to face off against the Old Etonian PM.
“He is in the end a liar, he is callous, he doesn’t care, he plays at politics, he plays with people’s lives,” she said. “He has a woman problem – he certainly has a problem with me.”
But Sir Keir, the architect of parliamentary opposition to Brexit , said: “We have got to be a very very effective opposition on this.
“We’ve got to be seen to be winning the argument.”
8. And Keir Starmer is emphasising his experience
Keir Starmer repeatedly referred to his experience as Director of Public Prosecutions.
“I’ve run an organisation where I’ve changed values and culture,” he said. “You have to model it from the top.”
Expect this argument – about thoroughness and competence – to be raised constantly up til April 4.
9. The party definitely isn’t coming back from the left – at least not yet
Pretty much all the five candidates were careful not to dump Labour’s entire approach – which has shifted radically to the left since the days of Tony Blair .
Left-wing favourite Rebecca Long-Bailey said activists must become “salespeople for socialism” and form a movement.
But she wasn’t the only one.
Lisa Nandy said people don’t want “£3 off your energy bill and by the way we’ll be pretty nasty to immigrants as well” as a manifesto.
Sir Keir added: “My rules will be don’t trash the last Labour government. And don’t trash the last four years. We can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”
And Jess Phillips – generally regarded as the centrist candidate – said: “I want to lead a party that unreservedly celebrates immigration”.
But Emily Thornberry sounded a note of caution. She said the next leader must not be viewed as left, right, or centre. “We have to look at who is going to take us forward”.
10. But they dismissed the ‘Toby Carvery’ manifesto
Ms Long-Bailey – the closest of any candidates to Jeremy Corbyn – insisted “I was really proud of many of the policies in our manifesto” she helped write.
But she admitted: “Many people thought we were offering handouts rather than empowering them to better their own lives.”
Sir Keir said it was “overloaded” with policies and “there’s a tipping point where people say I just don’t believe it.”
Jess Phillips added: “I was literally laughed at on the school run about the [free] broadband policy.”
Emily Thornberry ducked saying the worst policy in the manifesto, instead saying: “I can select you the best one!”
But by far the best quote came from deputy leadership candidate Dawn Butler.
She told the crowd: “The manifesto was a bit like a Toby Carvery where you can get loads of stuff on your plate and you’re eating it and all of a sudden they’re coming up and giving you some gravy. And Brussels sprouts… And potatoes… It was just a bit much.”
