LabourList is a platform for all voices within the party

By the LabourList editorial team

The Labour Party has elected its new leadership team and we congratulate Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson. As a collective LabourList never took a view on who to support in the leadership and deputy leadership elections. Indeed we all privately supported different candidates for each role. So whoever won, someone in our team was bound to be delighted and someone else disappointed.

The leadership contest is now over and it is time to draw a line under the bickering and accusations that surrounded the worst parts of it. One of Labour’s core values is a belief in collectivism: that we achieve more together than we do alone. Now is the time for the Labour Party to come together and face down – as one united party – the Tory government so hell bent on destroying vital British institutions, services and values.

LabourList has always tried to strike a difficult and delicate balance between the different parts of our Party. We are a place for the myriad voices in the Parliamentary Labour Party and in the grassroots. We do not – and never have – represented one strand of thinking or one organisational faction, preferring to be a home to all of them. This means that during any given week, you will read pieces here that you both profoundly disagree and agree with. That is the nature of the broad church that is the Labour Party.

LabourList has also taken a stance to be a loyal but critical friend of our Party, its senior politicians and leaders since our foundation in 2009. As writers each of us has chosen at times to praise and at others to criticise the Party and the Leader. We have never been asked to do so, and we have never been stopped from doing so either. This is the correct editorial stance for us to take and we will continue to work in this way. We are a Party, not a cult. We improve by being open to asking the right questions, seeking the uncomfortable and unexpected answers and playing a key role in the ongoing debates.

We will continue seeking out, developing and publishing the best content from across the Labour family. We are so proud of our writers and our readers. It is you who make all the hard work worth it and you we do it for. We look forward to continuing to work with you to be the space that inspires informs and infuriates in equal measure. It’s no less than we all expect and deserve.

Signed:

Tom Happold, Executive Editor

Emma Burnell, Contributing Editor

Stafan Stern, Contributing Editor

Maya Goodfellow, Staff Writer

Conor Pope, Staff Writer