Alan Johnson endorses Yvette Cooper for leader and says Jeremy Corbyn isn’t right for the job

Update: According to Yvette Cooper’s campaign team, Johnson will be joining her on the campaign trail next week.

Alan Johnson has called on Labour to elect Yvette Cooper as Labour leader and said that Jeremy Corbyn isn’t right for the job.

In an article for the Guardian the former Home Secretary has said Cooper has “the intellect, the experience and the inner-steel” to be a successful leader.  The newly-appointed head of Labour’s pro EU campaign also writes that she would unite the party to win at the next General Election:

 “In my view only Yvette Cooper can unite the party to win again. Those members who can’t give her their first preference should give her their second. After over a century of male leaders we have an election where the most qualified candidate to lead our party back to government happens to be a woman. Let’s end the madness and elect her.”

Johnson, who also served as Health Secretary and Education Secretary, launches a blistering attack against Corbyn and his supporters. He says that Corbyn should not lead Labour as he’s “been cheerfully disloyal to every Labour leader he’s ever served under” and that Corbyn supporters should remember the successes of previous Labour governments, including introducing the minimum wage and greater rights for trade union members.

This endorsement will be considered a boost to the Cooper campaign, particularly as it’s rumoured there were calls prior to the general election for Johnson to replace Ed Miliband as Labour leader. He refused to consider such proposals.

Johnson also lashes out at general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union (where he also served as general secretary) Dave Ward for the way in which he endorsed Corbyn. Ward argued that the Islington North MP is the “antidote” to the “virus” of Blairism. Johnson writes:

“I can understand why the ‘virus’ drivel should emanate from our political opponents, including those in the various far-left sects who last tried to bring their finger-jabbing intolerance into our party 35 years ago. What I’m puzzled by is why it should come from trade union leaders whose members benefited so much under the last Labour government.”

He also defends Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall over the recent controversy on Labour’s position on the welfare bill. A sizeable number of MPs and Labour members criticised interim leader Harriet Harman’s decision to abstain on the vote. Two of the leadership candidates – Andy Burnham and Cooper – had also been critical of Harman’s stance but fell in line when it came to the vote. Corbyn was the only leadership candidate to break the whip and vote against the bill, while Kendall had always declared her support for Harman.

Johnson argues: “The Commons vote on the welfare bill was a mess. Shadow cabinet members felt they had to support collective responsibility. Jeremy had no such constraints … Are the other three candidates to be condemned for an abstention in opposition but not applauded for being part of the government that helped to increase the income of the working poor in the first place?”

He ends by explaining why he is supporting Cooper, noting that it is not just down to the fact that she is a woman:

“Of course this decision should not be made on gender alone. I believe that Yvette has the intellect, the experience and the inner-steel to succeed in this most difficult of roles. I’ve been enormously impressed by her poise, command of her brief as shadow home secretary and by her ideas on tackling inequality, child poverty and a radical programme of genuine devolution.”