No Stalking Horse Challenge

Statement by John McDonnell MP

There is absolutely no truth to the story circulating in some sections of the press this morning that I am preparing to run a stalking horse challenge to Gordon Brown. Neither myself nor any of my staff have indicated anything of the kind and the report is pure fabrication.

I would never stand as a stalking horse

Last time when I tried to challenge, it was a genuine attempt to set out a different political direction for the party and to offer Labour Party members a real choice of the way forward after the Blair era. That challenge failed because I could not muster the nominations of 12.5% of the PLP needed to stand under party rules when there is a vacancy for the position of leader.

While there is an incumbent no contestant can stand without the nomination of 20% of the PLP, i.e. currently 70 MPs plus the candidate. That makes it completely impossible for me to contemplate me running as a stalking horse, even if I thought it the right thing to do which I do not.

The party does indeed face a very serious challenge following our mauling by the electorate on Thursday, but we need to concentrate on getting our policies right and restoring the trust of our supporters. We cannot spin and re-launch our way back to popularity, nor is the anger we are facing from the electorate going to disappear when recent errors are forgotten.

We are facing a deep seated malaise that can only be addressed by a radical change of direction and a programme of concrete policies which address the real concerns that people have.

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