Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has sent a strong warning to her Labour colleagues after her party suffered ‘disastrous’ results at the local elections last week
Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has sent a strong ten-word warning to her Labour colleagues after her party suffered “disastrous” results at the local elections last week.
The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington told MPs in her party and advisers in the Prime Minister’s team: “I think trying to echo Reform is a party disaster.” She raised fears of Labour moving to the right to try to neutralise the threat of Reform UK, after Nigel Farage’s party swept to victory at the local elections.
Speaking to LBC on Sunday morning, Ms Abbott said she agreed with her colleague Ros Jones, the Labour mayor for Doncaster. After narrowly winning the race, Ms Jones attacked Keir Starmer for cutting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners, raising national insurance for employers and restricting the eligibility of disability benefits.
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Ms Abbott said Ms Jones was “right”, adding: “I think that the welfare cuts we’ve made have contributed to the disastrous result in the local elections.”
Mr Farage’s party won hundreds of councillor seats at the local elections, as well as two mayoral elections. It also scraped through a win in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by six votes, overturning a huge Labour majority.
Asked about dealing with the threat of Reform UK, Ms Abbott said: “Well, I think we have to challenge what they’re saying about race and immigration. I know there are colleagues, maybe people advising Keir Starmer, who think we have to sort of follow along.
“I think trying to echo reform is a party disaster, because if you try and echo reform, you just make them legitimate and you actually make them stronger.”
She continued: “When you look at the polling the immigration is not the biggest issue that people have. It comes sort of three quarters the way down in any poll of what people are concerned about.
“I think we have to deal with issues about welfare payments, about the winter fuel payment, which came up on every door. We need to scrap the cuts and benefits to the disabled. We need to address those things.”
It comes as Keir Starmer faces a backlash from some within his own party over Labour ’s disappointing local elections results, which came less than a year after their landslide general election victory. Writing in the Sunday Mirror , South Shields MP Emma Lewell said the Government needs a “change of plan” more than a “Plan For Change”.
She took aim at Labour’s refusal to pay compensation to WASPI women and cuts to Personal Independence Payments. The PM has also come under fire over the early decision to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners – a choice that is still having widespread repercussions.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting earlier said he knows voters are “shouting at the telly” to tell Labour they are not feeling the change that was promised at the election. Mr Streeting said he knows people are “hungry for change” but told them: “So are we, and it is frustrating.” He asked families to “give us a chance to deliver the change that we promised”
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