Liz Kendall has called on Labour to reach out to the public by contacting millions of voters and asking them to take part in the leadership contest. In a letter to the party’s General Secretary Iain McNicol, Kendall urges Labour to adopt a strategy of contacting every person identified as a supporter since 2010 and asking them to sign up as members, registered supporters or affiliated members.
Under new rules, people will be able to sign up as a supporter for £3 and vote in this summer’s leadership vote. While membership has risen substantially since the election, to over 220,000, reports suggest that there has not been a big uptake in the number of registered supporters and affiliated members.
Since January alone, Labour Party activists spoke to over five million voters on the doorstep – over the past five years, that number will be considerably higher. Now Kendall wants the party to contact each one of those who identified as a Labour supporter and let them know how they can take part in the current “debate about how Labour renews itself”.
You can read her full letter to McNicol here:
Dear Iain,
I am writing to you to formally accept the party’s nomination as a candidate for Labour leader.
I look forward to having the debate that the party needs – not only about why we lost in May, but how we can win next time. Doing that means that we must reach out to as many people as possible.
Labour members and activists have worked hard in recent years to identify millions of Labour supporters around the country.
We need them to be part of the debate about how Labour renews itself.
So today I am asking you to begin a process of contacting all of those Labour supporters who the party has identified since 2010, and invite them to become party members, registered supporters and affiliated members.
They need to have their say on building a Labour Party that can win in 2020. The country needs a strong and effective Labour Party – we need as many people who share our values involved in that process as possible.
Kind regards,
Liz Kendall MP
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