Why I’m backing Ed Balls for leader

By John Robertson MP

One of the best bits of news post election, which has raised the spirits of me and my colleagues, has been the news that we have had a surge of thousands of new members in the first couple of weeks after the election. I too joined the party at a time when we suffered a bitter defeat at the polls and understand the urge to fight back at regressive forces that inspires our new members. So welcome to the party or welcome home to those returning. Before I come to who should lead our party we should all be angry about losing elections, as when we lose elections we leave the fate of our country and the fate of those who rely upon us the most for protection in the hands of a Conservative government, which as history always shows lets them down.

This is never as more obvious as in a constituency like mine in Glasgow. Take unemployment for example, despite the recession unemployment across my city is still around 22% down on 1997 levels, that’s incredible considering the recession meant that it has almost doubled since 2008 – when it was down by almost 60% on 1997 levels.

The destination of school leavers in my city went from 17% going to university in 1997 to 47.5% by 2009. Life expectancy in Glasgow, known for being among the lowest in the UK, has gone up and the system of tax credits has lifted many thousands of my constituents out of poverty. These may seem like endless lists of statistics to some but behind these figures are names and faces; I see young people I have known from childhood who have broken away from paths of long-term unemployment that were well trodden by their parents.

All this is what has influenced me on who I want to lead the party. As these things don’t happen by chance, they don’t fall out of the sky, this came about due to a Labour government. But most importantly a Labour government that had strong leadership at its heart, as well as the dogged determination to drive through its vision and policy past the barriers of bureaucracy and into implementation.

No-one who has been following politics over the last month could say that Ed Balls lacks strength and vision. Ed was ahead of the curve within the party recently when it came to VAT and BSF and we have subsequently seen these campaigns adopted by the party nationally. He not only supported a living wage but brought it into creation in his own department practising what he preached. I feel he too is ahead of the curve by calling for a diversity fund within the party as can be seen by those of my fellow colleagues who have signed my EDM in support of the measure, and Sunder Katwala of the Fabian Society who views it positively.

In addition, as many of my colleagues have recently acknowledged those voters who turned away from Labour at the last election (around a 20% drop) are what wonks call “C2s”, or skilled working class voters to people like you and me. This loss is particularly painful for me as I was an engineer for BT for 20 years before I became an MP and would have been in this bracket, so I feel I have an insight into the type of leader I would have found appealing.

Since 1983 the party has taken the right route every time we were at a cross roads, and we need to do so once again. I don’t want our next leader to just turn the page of the same book but to open a fresh chapter in this party’s history and start again renewed. For such a task a party needs strong and effective leadership, and this is what I feel Ed Balls symbolises; not only an easily approachable man with the vision to solve these problems, but also one who has the steel needed to enact and hammer out that vision and bring the fight to the coalition government.

When Ed Balls came to my constituency last month I saw how he was able to connect not only with those members of my CLP but how well he went down on the doorstep with those voters we must win over in the south of the country. That is why I am backing Ed Balls for leadership of the Labour Party and why I hope others do the same, because right now we don’t need to mirror the Tories with a salesman, but rather a strong distinguishable leader.