Labour leadership outsider Clive Lewis calls for a REFERENDUM on whether to keep the Royal Family as he backs Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to quit UK
- The left-winger is trailing sixth and last in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn
- He made the suggestion as he launched his campaign with a speech in London
- Told an audience in Brixton: ‘I’d rather see us as citizens than subjects’
Labour leadership outsider Clive Lewis called for a referendum about dumping the Royal Family today as he defended Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The left-winger, who is trailing sixth and last in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn, made the suggestion as he launched his campaign with a speech in London.
The Sandhurst-trained former British Army officer, who is now a shadow Treasury minister, said that the Duchess of Sussex had been the victim of racism and invasion of privacy.
He said he agreed with their decision to ‘step back’ from roles as full-time royals, which have sparked uproar in the Royal Family.
Speaking in Brixton, Mr Lewis said: ‘One of the things I always talk about is democracy.
‘Why not have a referendum in this country on the future of the Royal family?
‘We’re a democracy, I’d rather see us as citizens than subjects.’
The Duchess of Sussex returned to Canada last night as the Queen and other senior royals took decisive action and ordered their teams to find a ‘workable solution’ to Harry and Meghan’s future roles.
The couple had only recently arrived in the UK after spending an extended festive break in the Commonwealth country but the duchess is now back with baby son Archie who remained behind, reportedly looked after by a nanny and friends of the duchess.
The left-winger, who is trailing sixth and last in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn, made the suggestion in a campaign speech in London
The former British Army officer turned shadow minister said that the Duchess of Sussex had been the victim of racism and invasion of privacy
The shadow Treasury minister said that the Duchess of Sussex had been the victim of racism and invasion of privacy
Mr Lewis said: ‘I completely respect the right of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to do what they have done. It is a matter for them.
‘It is extremely unfortunate and a sign of the media we have that they feel they have to do this.
From soldiering to socialism: Former Army officer and increasingly fervent left-winger
Like many of his leadership rivals, Clive Lewis comes from a working class background.
He was raised by his single-parent father on a Northampton council estate and went on to become the first member of his family to go to university.
After studying economics at the University of Bradford he became involved in student politics and was vice president of the National Union of Students.
He later worked as a journalist, including for the BBC local television.
At the same time he became a Territorial Army soldier and served a tour in Afghanistan in 2009 with 7 Rifles. Afterwards he spoke about how the time on the frontline had left him with depression.
He was chosen to fight Norwich South after ex-minister Charles Clarke was defeated by the Lib Dems in 2010 and retook it for Labour in 2015.
But he faced controversy ahead of that election when he suggested he would only lose if he was ‘caught with my pants down behind a goat with Ed Miliband at the other end’.
He was made a shadow energy minister and then, with his Armed Forces background – in short supply on the Labour benches – became shadow defence secretary in 2016.
But he was removed from the post after a speech he was due to make, saying Labour would not alter its policy of retaining British nuclear weapons, was removed from a speech by Mr Corbyn’s comms chief Seamas Milne.
The following year the avid Remainer resigned as shadow business secretary in protest at Mr Corbyn’s decision to back the triggering of Article 50 to quit the EU.
Mr Lewis was forced to apologise in October 2017 after he was heavily criticised by colleagues for telling an activist at Labour conference to ‘get on your knees b****’.
Mr Lewis admitted at the time that his language had been ‘offensive and unacceptable’.
But in 2018 he yet again returned, as a Treasury minister working for hardline shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
‘I know it is not the only reason. But if you look at the intrusion on their lives, if you look at the racism that Meghan Markle has experienced in the British media, then I can understand why, given what’s happened, given the difficulties within their family, it can’t be easy being a royal.’
Despite its tilt to the left under Mr Corbyn, republicanism had very much been a side issue within the socialist party, despite its popularity among the membership.
But previously left-wing MPs have criticised Meghan and Harry.
In 2018 republican MP Emma Dent Coad, who lost her Kensington seat last month, accused the duchess of Sussex of only doing charity work while TV cameras were present.
In a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference she said: ‘I know some people find it really encouraging when members of the royal family support local charities – people have told me ”So and so came in, they helped us with this, and it was really encouraging”.
‘I don’t have any problem with that at all, but when the cameras are gone let’s remember those volunteers are back doing 99 per cent of the work completely unsung, completely unappreciated.
‘Their support is important to some, not to others, but it’s peripheral.’
Mr Lewis used his speech today at Brixton’s Black Cultural Archive to set out his vision for the Labour leadership as he looks to claw on and stay in the contest.
But he later tried to row back on his comments, tweeting: ‘I didn’t say they should be abolished, I have lots of respect for the hard work they do.
‘I simply think the question about their size & the money they receive should be one for the public.
‘Asking these questions is democratic.’
But people on Twitter jumped on his remarks.
Both the shadow Treasury spokesman and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry face a race against time to remain in the battle for the top job, with the deadline for nominations from MPs and MEPs looming on Monday.
The latest figures from the Labour Party showed that Mr Lewis and Ms Thornberry are the only two in the six-candidate field who have failed to reach the threshold of 22 nominations.
Mr Lewis has four signatories – 18 shy of the target figure – and Ms Thornberry has nine.
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips all secured the 22 backers required to continue in the competition on Thursday.
As of Friday, Ms Long-Bailey currently has 26 supporters, Wigan MP Ms Nandy has 24 and Ms Phillips has 22.
Early front-runner Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, was the first to cross the line earlier this week.
He stretched his lead over the rest of the pack, with the party confirming that, as of Friday, he has 63 backers in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
Candidates who pass the magic number of 22 – 10 per cent of Labour MPs and MEPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party, who total 212 – will then need to secure the backing of 5 per cent of constituency Labour branches or at least three affiliate groups, two of which must be made up of trade unions.
Sir Keir has already been backed for leader by Unison, one of the country’s largest trade unions.
Unite is expected to back Ms Long-Bailey – labelled the ‘continuity candidate’ by her critics – with the trade union’s general secretary Len McCluskey closely aligned with Mr Corbyn.
The others in the so-called ‘big four’ of trade unions – GMB and Usdaw – will be sought after by the remaining candidates, along with other smaller worker representative organisations.
Those who fail to secure enough union backing face a trek across the country in the coming weeks to convince constituency Labour Party (CLP) branches to nominate them.
The Queen drives through Sandringham today as she holds crisis talks with Prince Charles and Prince William to hammer out a deal to keep Harry and Meghan in the royal family
Last night Mr Lewis, speaking on BBC’s Question Time, said Labour needed to collaborate with ‘other parties and movements’ in order to mount a challenge to the Conservatives in five years’ time.
He said the party had ‘paid a price’ for failing to strike a deal with other Remain-supporting parties at the election.
Addressing Labour’s future, the Norwich South MP told the panel-show audience: ‘Ultimately, unless the Labour Party can appeal to the centre ground of British politics then you know, you’re right, it can’t win.
‘But the centre ground of British politics changes and shifts.’
Who is in the frame for the Labour leadership?
Sir Keir Starmer
Sir Kier Starmer was raised by socialist parents who named him after Keir Hardie, the Labour leader’s founder and a colossus of the socialist movement.
The current bookies’ favourite to win the leadership, in Who’s Who he refers to his parents Rodney and Josephine Starmer as ‘Rod and Jo’.
The shadow Brexit secretary was an out-and-out Remainer who frequently clashed with Corbyn’s inner circle over his overt support for a second referendum.
The 57-year-old lawyer, a former director of public prosecutions, was kept largely out of sight during the election campaign as the party tried, unsuccessfully, to hold on to Leave seats in the north.
Distrusted by hard left fans of Mr Corbyn, the Holborn and St Pancras MP set out his stall to be a unity candidate, attacking ‘factionalism’ and saying the party needed to include both Momentum and fans of Tony Blair.
And he dangled a carrot in front of Corbynites, saying he did not want the party to move too far rightwards.
He also played up his humble roots, with the Oxford-educated lawyer Sir Keir, who owns homes in London and Surrey worth more than £2million, saying in December: ‘I know what it’s like. I actually never had been in any workplace other than a factory until I left home for university. I’d never been in an office.’
He said he did not want a return to the era of Tony Blair, telling the BBC this morning: ‘I don’t need someone else’s name tattooed on my head to make decisions.’
But he might face difficulty if he is seen as not left wing enough, or if the party feels it needs a northern voice to win back seats.
Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry has been dogged by claims of snobbery towards working-class voters for years.
The shadow foreign secretary, whose Islington seat neighbours that of Jeremy Corbyn, was forced to resign from Ed Miliband’s front bench in 2014 after tweeting an apparently mocking image of a house in Rochester with a white van and England flags outside.
Labour came third in the by-election in the constituency, which was won by Ukip.
After December’s election failure she was embroiled in a furious row with ex-minister Caroline Flint, who lost her Don Vallley seat to the Tories.
Ms Flint claimed Mrs Thornberry told a northern MP privately that Brexit voters were ‘stupid’.
Mrs Thornberry has angrily denied the allegation and threatened to sue Ms Flint.
A lively performer in Parliament, she has admirers among Labour’s clutch of metropolitan MPs.
Ms Thornberry’s London seat and vocal pro-Remain position could tell against her – although the membership is generally pro-EU.
Rebecca Long Bailey
The shadow business secretary is seen as the ‘continuity’ candidate, having been closely involved in Labour’s lurch to the Left.
Frequently deployed on media, the 40-year-old’s career has been pushed by shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who has long tipped her as a future leader.
Entering the contest she set out her stall saying she will keep pushing ‘our socialist agenda’, stressing her hard-Left credentials.
In a thinly-veiled swipe at rival Keir Starmer, she insisted she had not been happy with the party’s Brexit stance in the election campaign, saying it had eroded ‘trust in our communities’. She also admitted Labour should have been ‘tougher’ in addressing a wave of vile anti-Semitism among activists.
But Ms Long Bailey gave a staunch defence of Mr Corbyn, complaining that he had been subjected to ‘unprecedented levels of criticism and attack against his own personal character’ and she felt he was the ‘right man’ with the ‘right ideas’.
Given Labour’s dire need to reconnect with its traditional heartlands, her northern constituency and accent will also be selling points.
Lisa Nandy
The Wigan MP washed her hands of the Corbyn project some time ago – which could be a boon given its humiliating failure in the election.
But the 40-year-old has maintained a high media profile, and has strong left-wing credentials away without being marked on the extreme.
While the leadership desperately tried to stay neutral, she pushed hard for Labour to adopt a more Leave policy and accept the verdict of the referendum.
Announcing her run she said: ‘Without what were once our Labour heartlands, we will never win power in Westminster … I have heard you loud and clear.’
Ms Nandy was involved in unsuccessful talks to support Theresa May’s deal, but has indicated she would not support Boris Johnson’s harder Brexit.
However, some MPs complain that she is ‘lightweight’ and failed to make good on her rhetoric about allowing Brexit to happen.
Jess Phillips
The Birmingham Yardley MP is a confident performer in the media and the House of Commons chamber.
Her straight-talking, no-nonsense manner and Brummie accent have won her many fans and she was one of the first names mentioned as a contender after Mr Corbyn announced he would step down.
But she had a tricky start to her campaign. She backtracked after she suggested she would campaign to take the UK back into the European Union if she takes over from Jeremy Corbyn.
Ms Phillips said that she would ‘have to look at what was going on at the time’ and that ‘if it is more economically viable to be in the European Union then I will fight for that’.
But the MP for Birmingham Yardley then appeared to perform a screeching U-turn as she said there is ‘no doubt or debate’ that the UK is leaving the bloc and that she did not believe a pledge to rejoin would be in the party’s next manifesto.
The 38-year-old’s willingness to criticise the leader has won her few friends among Corbynistas, with a groundswell of opposition to her taking over.
She has been the target of high levels of online abuse from people across the political spectrum, including death threats.
She also has no experience of the party’s front bench, something that could either count against her or for her, depending on the views of the members.
In March she said she would ‘be a good prime minister’. At a time when several moderate MPs had quit Labour she added: ‘I feel like I can’t leave the Labour Party without rolling the dice one more time. I owe it that. But it doesn’t own me. It’s nothing more than a logo if it doesn’t stand for something that I actually care about – it’s just a f***ing rose’.
Clive Lewis
The Norwich South MP, 48, has managed to ingratiate himself into the Corbyn machine despite a major falling out over Brexit.
In 2017 he quit as shadow business minister after he rebelled against Mr Corbyn to oppose triggering Brexit negotiations.
But he returned the following year to join shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s economic team.
A sexism scandal from 2017 could be a major hindrance in a ladership race likely to feature several female candidates. He was forced to apologise ‘unreservedly’ for telling an activist to ‘get on your knees b****’ at an event during Labour conference.
Footage of a Momentum event in Brighton showed Mr Lewis making the remark to a man on stage as the audience laughed.
The then backbencher admitted his language had been ‘offensive and unacceptable’ after facing a wave of condemnation from colleagues.
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