Labour's Rebecca Long-Bailey says 'I'm from Salford – no-one messes with me'

Left-wing Rebecca Long-Bailey has branded claims that she is just another Jeremy Corbyn as “disrespectful”.

The Labour leadership favourite insists she is “completely different” and will run things her way.

And she says she will build on the party’s policy platform to win the next election.

The Shadow Business Secretary, 40, has faced suggestions she may not be tough enough for the job, which may involve standing up to people desperate to cling to power.

“I’m from Salford, no-one messes with me,” she hits back.

Ms Long-Bailey, a close ally of Mr Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell, has struggled to shrug off claims they would still run the show if she wins.

She fumed in her first newspaper interview of the campaign: “Insinuations have been made: ‘Oh these men have been pulling strings in the background’.

“I’ve been proud to stand on the policy platform that we’ve had.

“That’s not to say I’m not a completely different person from Jeremy because I am, and I’ll be taking the party in completely different directions.”

Critics claim she rarely spoke out on difficult issues, from anti-Semitism to Brexit , during her years in shadow cabinet. Some, including her supporters, have blamed it on shyness.

She laughs that off. “I’m not shy, I was too busy working. I was locked in a room for four years developing a lot of the policies that were in the manifesto, rather than going around wining and dining.”

Ms Long-Bailey was “devastated” by Labour’s election defeat and pins it on “a whole range of issues” including lack of trust in policies, the party’s Brexit position and its handling of anti-Semitism.

But she refuses three times to blame Mr Corbyn’s leadership – which she gave 10/10 on TV.

“I supported Jeremy from the start because he was a kind, honest, principled politician and a lot of the things we believed in were the same,” she says.

“But we didn’t win the general election and we’ve got to recognise what we got wrong and can’t get them wrong again.”

She adds: “I would do things very differently. He didn’t have an easy time.”

Her defence of her old boss will persuade many Labour members that she is not enough of a change.

But she tries to put clear water between them by focusing on the very un-Corbynesque language of aspiration.

“The Tories talk about being the party of aspiration and they’re nowhere near delivering anybody’s aspirations, apart from a select group of people they’ve always tried to protect,” she says.

“It’s about saying to an 18- year-old Rebecca that the Labour party will make sure you fulfil your dreams and that your children’s lives would be better than yours.

“No matter your postcode, no matter where you work, you will be guaranteed that better quality of life. And we didn’t say that in this election. That drew many people to the conclusion that we were there to provide handouts rather than to fulfil aspirations.”

Ms Long-Bailey describes her own childhood in a working-class family in Salford, which she has been accused of embellishing, as “quite humble”.

During her years in Salford in the early 1980s the area suffered chronic poverty, deprivation and unemployment – Long-Bailey has claimed her political outlook was shaped by seeing her father worry about losing his job at the docks.

But in the late ‘80s the family moved to Frodsham in leafy Cheshire.

She describes herself as a “lapsed” Catholic who goes to church at Christmas and Easter. “I’m hedging my bets,” she says.

She is furious about the row over her comments that she is not in favour of a rule that allows abortion beyond 24 weeks for disabled unborn children.

She says: “I had members saying I was a puppet of the Pope and that my strings were pulled by the Vatican. It’s the Vatican, it’s the Pope, it’s John, it’s Jeremy. Who else is it going to be?”

Ms Long-Bailey is prepared for “personal attacks” if she becomes Labour leader and says her husband Steve, who is at home with their seven-year-old son, is fully behind her.

“He is. He knows how important it is. We’re not going to change the world and build the society we know our community deserve without that sacrifice and without understanding that it’s going to have implications on our lives.”

But she adds that she will speak out against intrusive media.

“You expect scrutiny, you expect criticism but your family should be kept out of it. Criticise me on what I’ve said or what my policies are, don’t criticise me on the colour of my lipstick or misrepresent things I’ve said because that will make me really angry.”

Former chancellor George Osborne tweeted: “One thing that every Conservative I know wants for 2020 is for Rebecca Long-Bailey to become leader of the Labour Party”.

Why does she think that is? “He’s probably got a bit of a crush on me to be honest,” she laughs. “Who wouldn’t?”

But isn’t it because the Tories think they could beat the most left-wing candidate again?

“I’m not being funny, but I wouldn’t be taking advice off George Osborne on who the best leader of the Labour party is,” she says.

Long-Bailey shares a flat in London with Angela Rayner – who she is backing for deputy – and the pair are close.

She says her fellow Northern MP is a “model housemate” and aside from leaving her shower loofahs around the bathroom – “that drives me mad” – is “not that messy”. She has enviously mentioned Rayner’s huge shoe collection.

A Manchester United fan, she backs plans for the World Cup Final to be held in the North if the UK wins the 2030 bid, as long as it’s at Old Trafford.

After teasing last week that she may have tried drugs in Amsterdam, she reveals she was a bit of a clubber, singling out the Prodigy as a favourite.

But her best night in now is “a Chinese and a bit of wine” in front of the television with her husband, while her “guilty pleasure” is Greggs’ vegan sausage rolls.

“I had some on Saturday, some on Monday and another two today. I’m not even vegan.”