Rebecca Long-Bailey today hinted she has taken illegal drugs in the past, as she prepared to officially launch her Labour leadership campaign.
And she revealed details of her plan to scrap the House of Lords – replacing it with an elected Senate based in the North.
The Shadow Business Secretary was asked whether she had taken banned substances during an interview with JOE’s Oli Dugmore.
She replied: “Ooooh. Well, I’ve been to Amsterdam. That’s all I’ll say.”
Ms Long-Bailey will launch her leadership bid with a speech tonight in Manchester.
She’s expected to further flesh out plans to scrap the House of Lords – to replace it with an elected upper chamber.
She said in the interview: “I think we need to see a seismic shift in our constitutional processes and the way that power is distributed across the United Kingdom.
“And I’ve talked already about scrapping the House of Lords, and replacing it with a form of elected senate which would be outside of London and would be representative of people right across the UK.”
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Asked if she liked being in London – beyond enjoying representing her constituents – she said: “I don’t want to offend any Londoners but no, not really.
“To be fair I’ve never really been around London, apart from I’ve got relatives down there, so I visit relatives – and I’ve also been doing it for work. I didn’t spend a lot of time in London before I was an MP”
She added: “I’ve heard that there’s some nice little villages where you can get really tasty food, so I need check stuff out one day.”
In her speech tonight, Ms Long-Bailey will promise to end the “gentlemen’s club of politics” by devolving power out of Westminster, while pledging to introduce a “Green New Deal” that unites Labour heartlands.
“Where I grew up, Westminster, even London, felt like a million miles away,” she will say.
“The story of the last few years is that many people feel there is something wrong with their laws being drafted hundreds of miles away by a distant and largely unaccountable bureaucratic elite in Brussels.
“But I’ll be honest, Westminster didn’t feel much closer, and it still doesn’t today.
“That’s why I want to shake up the way Government works and deliver a clear message to voters: we will put power where it belongs – in your hands.
“The British state needs a seismic shock, to prise it open at all levels to the people – their knowledge, their skills, their demands.”
Ms Long-Bailey will say “proper democracy” takes power away from the “offshore bank account and places it on the ballot paper, so workers can have more and chief executives less, and we can tackle the climate crisis with a Green New Deal that unites all of Labour’s heartlands”.
“We will end the gentlemen’s club of politics and we will be setting out plans to go further by devolving power out of Westminster to a regional and local level.”
