First black female MP joins race for Labour leadership
Party needs women in power, says Diane Abbott
Diane Abbott: the outspoken MP hopes to 'broaden contest'
THE race to become the next leader of Britain's Labour Party took a new twist last night when Britain's first black woman member of parliament joined the battle.
Diane Abbott said it was time to broaden out a contest which critics say has so far focused on white men in their 40s.
"I am going to run. So many people in the past 48 hours have asked me to put my hat in the ring and I have finally agreed to do so . . . I think we can't go forward with a leadership where there are no women," Ms Abbott said.
Former health minister Andy Burnham also said he would stand, bringing the number of contenders to six.
A Cambridge graduate and former TV reporter, Ms Abbott is an outspoken MP and a regular political television pundit. She is in her late-50s and became Britain's first black female MP in 1987.
The frontrunner in the race is the cerebral David Miliband (44), foreign minister under Gordon Brown. Once an adviser to Tony Blair, Mr Miliband is seen as the candidate of the party's centrist wing.
Former cabinet minister David Blunkett later said he would nominate Andy Burnham for the leadership.
"I'm very pleased indeed that both David Miliband and Andy Burnham have addressed this weekend's Progress conference and that they are addressing the same challenges for the future, rather than getting embroiled in distancing themselves from our recent past," Mr Blunkett said in a statement.
"It is absolutely crucial that we fight the next election and the one after that -- not re-fight the 2005 and 2010 elections, which is always a danger in contests of this sort.
"I'm also extremely keen that there should be the widest possible field and that this should include candidates with a vision of the future like David and Andy.
"That's why I've indicated that I'm prepared to nominate Andy Burnham, to widen the field and to provide a genuine debate which reflects the different elements not just of the Labour Party but, more crucially, of the electorate on which we will be reliant for a return to office."
Committed
And he added: "I am deeply committed to working out how we can get people who would count themselves as middle-class -- as well as those who would describe themselves as working-class -- back on board with Labour. It is among such voters that the next election will be won or lost."
In a separate development last night a leading British trade union is set to use the Labour leadership contest to campaign for more party members.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) will discuss the election of a new Labour leader at its annual conference in Bournemouth tomorrow.
The union's executive will urge delegates to use the contest as an opportunity to "refresh" the CWU's involvement with the party.
The conference will hear calls for a new campaign to recruit CWU members into the Labour party and to establish hustings meetings with the leadership contenders.
An emergency motion to the conference calls on the CWU only to support candidates who want to keep the Royal Mail 100pc publicly owned.
- Gordon Beart in London
Irish Independent
