Now that the three main candidates in the Labour leadership contest have established themselves, they are vying to be the ones who set the agenda and the terms of debate. This suggests, they hope, that others, including rival candidates, respect them so much that they cannot help but following their lead.
So Yvette Cooper’s campaign believe that Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham have been following in the Shadow Home Secretary’s wake, pointing to interventions she has made on business, tax, the benefit cap, the party’s response to the election and the possibility of a break clause for the party to dump or renew its support for a leader. All of these, they claim, have been followed by one or both of the other two candidates agreeing.
So for instance, Burnham had a bit of an ‘I agree with Nick’ moment at the weekend, telling John Pienaar that ‘Yvette puts it very well’ on the 50p tax after the Shadow Home Secretary said it should stay for the time being.
And again, on 19 May, Cooper said ‘Labour has to show we want to build business up, not knock them down’, which was followed by Kendall telling the Lobby lunch on 21 May that ‘I want Labour not just to ‘understand’ business but be the champion of people who take a risk, create something, build it up and make a success of it’.
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