Mary Creagh quits leadership race and warns party not to look down on working people who do well for themselves

Mary Creagh has this evening quit the race for Labour leader, saying she has decided to step down in order to allow her MP supporters to nominate other candidates before Monday’s deadline.

The Shadow International Development Secretary has announced her decision with a piece in The Guardian, in which she stresses that the next leader must take steps to make the party more business friendly. She has some harsh words for Ed Miliband’s leadership, writing that “the leader’s office did not understand business and didn’t understand what business needed from government.”

Creagh was looking the least likely of the five candidates to make the ballot, with the fewest number of nominations so far, seven. Interestingly, six of her endorsers were MPs who have been elected since 2010.

In her article, she stresses the importance of not alienating aspirational working class voters:

“Labour cannot be the party of working people and then disapprove when some working people do very well for themselves and create new businesses, jobs and wealth.”

The Wakefield MP says that while Labour were seen as competent on education, healthcare and local government, it was mistrust over the economy that drove many would-be supporters away. She writes:

“Labour lost the election because – while people trust us to run their schools their councils, their hospitals – they do not trust us to run the economy. Tackling inequality is why the party exists. It’s in our DNA. But the next Labour leader will have to show that Labour understands the problems facing the UK’s five million self-employed people, sole traders and small businesses. That understanding must also run through our party’s DNA like a golden thread if Labour is to win in 2020.”

The most obvious beneficiary of Creagh’s decision is probably Jeremy Corbyn, now the only candidate not to have reached the nomination threshold. He needs just 18 endorsements from a possible 59 MPs, made easier by the fact he will not have to battle it out with Creagh for the remaining members. Earlier today, it was revealed Corbyn had topped a LabourList survey of preferred leadership candidates – Creagh had come last.

The other main winner from this announcement could possible be Liz Kendall. The two had been making similar pitches in many areas (although Kendall apparently more successfully), so it may be that Creagh’s endorsers see the Leicester West MP as their next natural home.