Labour needs “proper anti-austerity policy”, not just slogans, says Angela Eagle

Angela Eagle has accused Jeremy Corbyn of neglecting his duties as leader by only being interested in building a protest movement outside Parliament and of failing to deliver “hard policies”.

The leadership hopeful said that she would ensure that Labour has “proper anti-austerity policy rather than just a slogan”, and said that the party needs to rediscover its commitment to the parliamentary path.

In a forthcoming interview with the Fabian Review, Eagle said that Labour is in danger of turning into a protest group that “turns up, waves a few banners, sells a few newspapers and then disappears.”

The former Shadow Business Secretary, who has deputised for Corbyn at PMQs several times, said that she had done “months of trying to make being on his frontbench work”, but had come to the conclusion that “he’s not interested” in being an effective opposition. She said that the leadership are “just not doing the day job.”

She said that “Jeremy is full of nice notions about peace and justice but no hard policies have emerged”, and pledged that “any Labour Government led by me would be anti-austerity.”

“I think we’ve got to reaffirm the purpose of the Labour Party,” Eagle says in the interview. “The Labour Party was created – Clause One of its constitution – to get representatives into parliament so they could legislate in the interest of working people. We’ve always been a parliamentary party and a movement. I think Jeremy’s only interested in the movement outside. He’s not interested in parliament. I’ve come to this conclusion from months of trying to make being on his frontbench work and realising he’s not interested.”

She also explained that she had decided to put herself forward as leader because she wanted to ensure that Labour maintains its tradition as “a vehicle for change”.

“I’ve given my life to the labour movement and the Labour Party,” she said. “When I was growing up I saw the Labour Party as the only vehicle through which we could make our society work better for the majority of people and I still think that. That’s why I’m doing this. We cannot let the Labour Party, as a vehicle for change, just turn into a protest thing that turns up, waves a few banners, sells a few newspapers and then disappears.”