Labour deputy leadership candidate Dr Rosena Allin-Khan says she would create a ‘Ministry of Fabulosity’ for ‘fabulous MPs’ to create ‘fabulous ideas’ if she wins power
- Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the MP for Tooting, is now vying to replace Tom Watson
- Today she suggested a new ministry and said policies could include a ‘dance-off’
- The practising A&E doctor, said lighter policies would be discussed at ministry
A candidate to be Labour’s deputy leader has said she wants to create a ‘Ministry of Fabulosity’ for ‘fabulous MPs’ to create ‘fabulous ideas’ if she wins power.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the MP for Tooting who still works as a practising A&E doctor, has become the latest candidate to enter the race to succeed Tom Watson as deputy Labour leader.
Setting out her stall today, Dr Allin-Khan said she would create the new ministry to explore some serious policy ideas but also ‘some lighter more entertaining ones’.
The 43-year-old added that these could include alternatives to ‘traditional political debate’ such as a ‘dance-off’.
Ms Allin-Khan (pictured) told ITV’s Acting Prime Minister podcast that she would like to create a ‘Ministry of Fabulosity’ if she was elected deputy leader
Speaking to ITV’s Acting Prime Minister podcast, Dr Allin-Khan said: ‘It’s a real ministry, it will have to be dominated by fabulous MPs and come out with fabulous policies to shape the country.
‘Some serious ones, but some lighter more entertaining ones about he we see ourselves and some of the things we can do as a nation to put a swing in our step.’
Asked what kind of policies, she said: ‘Political debate, there is room for traditional political debate, but sometimes there is room for a dance off. Sometimes you need to know how your political representatives can represent themselves in real life. We all love a boogie.’
Her comments have received a mixed response, with some joking that the new ministry be located next to the ‘ministry of silly walks’ or the ‘ministry of magic’.
Earlier today, launching her bid to be deputy leader, Dr Allin-Khan said the party needed to listen with ‘humility’ to voters who abandoned the party at last month’s general election.
In the race for the deputy post triggered by Tom Watson’s decision to quit, shadow sport minister Dr Allin-Khan (pictured) and Labour’s only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, became the latest candidates to launch their bids
‘It is vital that we restore trust in the Labour Party across the country. It is clear that people did not trust us – we need to accept this fact, evaluate it, and learn from it in order to move forward,’ she said.
‘We cannot put words into people’s mouths. Our path back to power involves listening with humility to those former Labour voters who have abandoned the party.
‘I believe my life experience means I can help our movement do this. As a doctor, I cannot guess or assume what is wrong with a patient – I have to listen to their symptoms and investigate the root causes.
‘This is what we must do as a party, and is what I will do as deputy leader.’
Dr Allin-Khan’s announcement makes her the fifth candidate to declare in the contest to become deputy leader.
She is up against shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon, shadow equalities secretary Dawn Butler and shadow Europe minister Khalid Mahmood.
On Monday the party’s ruling National Executive Committee agreed the timetable for the leadership and deputy leadership elections, with the results to be announced at a special conference on April 4.
MPs vying to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader today made their opening pitches to the parliamentary party.
Six candidates – Rebecca Long-Bailey, Sir Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and Clive Lewis – set out their stalls in Parliament on Tuesday evening.
A poll of Labour members has suggested that Sir Keir Starmer (left with Ms Long Bailey last year) is in pole position to take over from Mr Corbyn
Addressing the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), shadow business secretary Ms Long-Bailey said that in losing the election, Labour ‘let down the people who rely on us’.
‘Our number one duty as Labour MPs is to learn the lessons of defeat and make sure we don’t repeat them,’ she told the private meeting.
Earlier, the frontbencher insisted that she was not the ‘continuity candidate’ to replace Mr Corbyn, but gave him a ’10 out of 10 rating’ – describing him as ‘one of the most honest, kind, principled politicians I’ve ever met’.
She told ITV: ‘What we can’t ignore was that Jeremy was savaged from day one by the press … We have a role as party to develop the image of our leader and to put them forward in the most positive way, but we also have a duty to rebut criticism and attacks.
‘As a party we needed to have a rebuttal unit, a clear structure in place to rebut the attacks against him.’
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir told the hustings that the party needs to ‘win back our heartlands’.
He said: ‘We need to understand and to address each and every reason we lost at this election, but we also need to win back Scotland, we need to win back seats in Wales, and if you draw a line from London to Bristol and look south we only have a handful seats.
‘So, we have got a mountain to climb.’
Rival Ms Nandy, the MP for Wigan, said the leadership debate was ‘possibly the most important in our history’.
‘Now is not the time to steady the ship. If we do not change course we will die and we will deserve to,’ she added.
And Ms Phillips told the hustings she does not want to be the next leader of the opposition, but rather ‘the next Labour prime minister – I want the people here to be in government’.
‘I have dedicated my life to trying to change the lives of others, but I am sick of just shifting the dial, I want to smash it,’ the Birmingham Yardley MP said.
The new Labour leader and deputy will be announced at a conference on April 4.
In the race for the deputy post triggered by Tom Watson’s decision to quit, shadow sport minister Rosena Allin-Khan and Labour’s only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, became the latest candidates to launch their bids.
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