Labour announce series of televised leadership hustings

On Wednesday, the candidate’s in Labour’s leadership race will take part in a public hustings in Nuneaton, broadcast nationwide on Newsnight. Now the party has confirmed that this will be the first such event through the contest, having agreed to air subsequent debates with various television and radio broadcasters.

Agreements have been made to air live hustings on Channel 4, Sky News, The Sunday Politics, 5live and LBC. These debates will take place in constituencies where Labour had hoped to make gains on May 7th, but failed, including Stevenage and Swindon. Wednesday’s debate will take place in Nuneaton, the first target seat announced on election night that Labour failed to take.

Labour had been confident of winning Nuneaton. When the result came through that the Tories had held on, it was the first clear sign that the apocalyptic exit poll was going to be correct.

Acting leader Harriet Harman said that the broadcast hustings would let the public play a major part in the choosing of a new leader and ensure the race would not be a “cosy contest”. She said:

“Tough, robust, live broadcast hustings from areas we lost in is how we will decide on the next leader of our Party to the public.

“The new leader we elect on September 12^th will be able to make immediate progress in taking our Party forward towards the General Election victory that will, we believe, be needed more than ever.

“To make sure we get the right leader, the best leader, we must let the public in. Previously, we have chosen our leader then introduced them to the public. This time we are introducing them to the public first.

“Having the leadership hustings live on TV is one part of that. No cosy contest, seeing how the candidates can reach out to those we need to win over. No more asking ourselves who we like, but instead asking the country who they like.”