Time for a Change

I voted on line in the Labour Leadership election last night. It’s taken me a long time during this election process to work out who the right candidate is and who I will support.

From the start, I wanted to support a leader who could get Labour back into power. Not just someone I would vote for, but someone who could earn the trust and votes of the many left and liberal leaning friends and colleagues I meet as I work and travel up and down the country.

I also wanted to support someone who shared my political values, promoted (at least some of) the policies I believed and would allow ordinary party members to feel that it was once again worth being part of a political movement. That membership mattered.

I’ve enjoyed watching and listening to Ed Balls as he has ripped into the Coalition over schools and the economy. He speaks with real authority and knowledge on both subjects. I hope he has a key role to play in our fight pack to power.

But Ed Miliband gets my vote for Leader. The Living Wage is a key policy and it’s something I have long thought is vital to fairness in our society. His views on the need to invest in the green economy and industries of the future sit comfortably with me. He has gone further to say that Iraq was wrong than his brother and I hope he will eventually stand up and say no to Trident. I trust his instincts and commitment on Climate Change.

I first heard Ed speak at conference in Manchester in 2007. He is no Obama, but he has a powerful ability to enthuse, empathise and inspire, all qualities which will build voter support. He is, I am convinced, a team builder, who will assemble a powerful shadow cabinet with the intellect, passion and moral conviction to take on the Coalition and win the argument on the economy, the recovery and the other great issues we face. A shadow cabinet that will focus on the job of winning again, rather than faction fighting around yesterday’s issues.

All of this has to be combined with a determination to take Labour in a fresh direction – radical, democratic, more openly socialist – that will establish a new left of centre politics. A new political “common ground” around which our communities can engage and develop. We also need to re-engage not just with the public but our own membership. Ed doesn’t just recognise the need to do this, from what I have read and heard, he means it.

Ed Miliband talks powerfully about the need for change. I’m trusting him to deliver.