As leadership launches go, the timing could not have been worse for Angela Eagle. Moments before she was due to set out her pitch, rumours started to circulate that Andrea Leadsom was dropping out of the race for the Tory leadership. By the time Eagle had actually started speaking, Leadsom was elsewhere reading a statement confirming the news to a scrum of journalists. All of this seems particularly unfortunate for Eagle given how long she appears to have spent mulling the decision. In the end, she couldn’t have picked a worse moment to actually show her hand. Though the publicity was snuffed out by this morning’s other events, what about the significance of Eagle’s bid? Here was her pitch:
‘I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think I could be a good Prime Minister for Britain. Now these are dark times for Labour and these are dangerous times for our country. A referendum result designed to settle an argument in the Conservative party has resulted in a country being torn apart, our economy damaged, our society hurt. And at this time, with a failed Prime Minister and a tiny number of Conservative MPs choosing the next one, our country needs a strong Labour party’.
It was clear from yesterday that Eagle needed to work on setting out why she wanted to be Labour leader. To her credit today, she spent some time focusing on that. But whilst she was more forceful in her passion, she wasn’t helped by her script being out of date as soon as she uttered it. Yes, a ‘failed Prime Minister’ might still be in office, to borrow Eagle’s words. But not for long and after this morning’s events, the Tories now look a picture of unity compared to the strife embroiling Labour. Eagle wasn’t wrong to say that the country needs a strong opposition. With a damp squib of a launch from Eagle and no prospect of Corbyn going anytime soon, it’ll be a while before that looks anywhere close to happening.
UPDATE:
A Labour leadership contest is now officially underway after the party’s General Secretary Iain McNicol confirmed that Angela Eagle had received enough nominations for the contest to open. The next step? It’s over to the National Executive Committee to confirm the timetable for what happens now. Here’s an update on the bookies’ odds for the next leader:
Comments