To think we can move the Labour party back to the centre by registering on 14-16 Jan...

[WarwickLife]

...if enough of us register to vote? The 48 hour window to register to vote in the leadership election has been announced as 14-16 January. I think it's worth £25 to join and have my say.

If enough of us do then perhaps we can actually get the centre left opposition that most people want and those who "reluctantly" voted Conservative can come back?

I thought of rejoining but I can’t summon up the enthusiasm to pay the money, Keir and Jess went along with the crazed manifesto - can’t help feeling whoever wins is going to lose another election before they find someone better, as the Corbyn team and supporters shows no shadow of understanding why they lost and a huge part of the party now.

If we had PR Lib Dem support would’ve been higher, fptp always punishes small parties.

I am a member and will be voting for Starmer. Most of the contributors to this thread seem to be similarly minded. I'm thus surprised that the aibu vote is 50/50. Are some mischievously voting and not posting.

@bakewreck99 with respect I don't think that's the case about Starmer going along with the election. He was purposefully invisible during the election because he was clashing with Corbyn/McDonnell behind the scenes in the PLP meetings, saying their strategy was going to lose seats. They agreed he'd be blocked from appearing in the media during the campaign and he probably thought he'd wait it out until they lost and he could actually step up and speak the truth.

I'm a member and will be voting for Starmer as he seems the most realistic choice. There is no way in hell Phillips will get it, she's too divisive.

@EnthusiasmIsDisturbed

The issue of patients being late or just not turning up is a much bigger problem and costs the NHS millions

No it doesn't. They overbook appointments accordingly and the "problem" is almost entirely sidestepped.
Healthcare staff are not sitting around doing nothing wasting money because patients don't turn up to their appointments.

Thinking of joining to vote. I'm centre left and a realist. Will vote for Starmer.

Why do we want it bought back to centre sorry?? Just so we can have Tory lite again?! Some people actually want an opposition party. A party that is on the Left.

Or, sorry, are you saying that YOU want it bought back to centre and so presume everyone does?

You say you some people want an "opposition" party. Many of us want it nearer to the centre so we can have a centre left Labour government. If you keep it on the extreme left like it is now we'll have a Conservative government.

A vote for Momentum/Corbyn/Long Bailey is a vote for the Tories.

I would be happy with all of them except Jess Phillips. If Jess Phillips is chosen, I will support her. The infighting has been horrendous. I think it's very important to build a united front.

Not momentum, and didn't vote for leader previously, but have supported corbyn throughout.

I am not a labour voter but I believe in a strong and credible opposition party. For this reason Ii believe the labour party should be more centrist. Neither very hard left nor very hard right are a good thing as we can see all over europe

@WarwickLife maybe you’re right, I despair at the Corbyn element though - the friends I’ve got that love him are still posting Facebook things about him winning the argument, it’s so alienating.

You get the feeling they’d be happy to be out of power 20 more years if that’s what it took to get elected, Corbyn after all has been out of power his whole life.

I voted for Corbyn in previous leader election as I wanted change in the Labour party, and truly believed he could bring it. The Labour party is a Left wing party, and it should stay a left wing party. I don't think any of us could have foreseen quite what has happened in politics over the last three years. I still respect Corbyn, and still think he is a good man. Thinking this doesn't mean I think he would have made a good PM, and I do wish he would have stood down earlier last year.

I mostly hope that the in fighting in the labour party will now calm down. I will most likely vote Starmer as I think he is what the labour party needs right now.

Ideal world, he will resign before next general election and Yvette Cooper will stand then :) :)

@nomorepoliticsplease

If all parties are centrist, and all agree with each other.. what is the point of an opposition?!

If we had a lot of centrist parties maybe politics would then be about competence to implement and improve policies rather than ideological argument and big voting for pie in the sky changes, us centre voters can only dream of such an eventuality.

@wikkitikkiwoo the last few elections have shown that the further left version of Labour is not popular enough to win, and what I want is Labour to win - not in opposition.

Notwithstanding his poor judgement on Iraq, Blair's policies and leadership were widely popular with the moderate majority, hence his success at winning elections. Although I personally agreed with many JC policies, he is not popular across the majority of the electorate and the election campaign and their stance on antisemitism was appallingly managed.

@bakewreck99 yes I agree. I do think Starmer has much more credibility with the wider electorate- so here's hoping.

@warwicklife

But is a Labour party with Tory Lite policies worthwhile? Might as well vote Tory.

I'm not saying I want a Labour party as left as Corbyn.. but a little more left than Blair would be nice...

I can’t relate to calling the Blair years Tory light - they increased public spending by so much. Those sort of sentiments show how out of step some labour folk is with most of the electorate. Labour should’ve claimed the successes of new labour and built on that rather than equating that with new labour being tories.

I can see Blair was wrong about Iraq now but at the time I thought he was right and so did many - Corbyn’s foreign policy was a big flop except amongst London labour types.

@bakewreck please don't conflate all London Labour voters into that preconception! My username is my university but I'm very much a Londoner and very much against sticking with Corbynism, as are many other London friends and colleagues.

I shall stop being so negative @WarwickLife and get on with seeing about voting. I've been judging you by the standards of my old London uni friends who are still in danger of being snoozed again for all their pro Corbyn posts even after that defeat! I'd love to see labour revive quickly.

According to news night Lisa Nandy "wowed" the parliamentary Labour Party this evening at their first hustings... I'm watching her with interest.

They’re all pretty piss poor candidates.

The 3 best choices aren’t standing MP’s at the moment. Andy Burnham, Sadiq Khan & David Miliband.

10 more years in the doldrums I’m thinking

Left about 18 months ago when it became clear to me Corbyn/McDonnell were leading the Party into disaster.
Rejoined after the election. Liking the look of Starmer and Nandy. Still not sure on the Deputy candidates, but not Rayner due to her Momentum backing.

@bakewreck99 I presume you canvassed with lots of London Labour types for the election did you? I did. And that isn't my experience. Or opinion.

Well neither of us is going to win an argument about whose Corbyn canvassing labour friends are more generally representative of London middle class labour canvassers are we? This is definitely a debate down a rabbit hole.

Regardless, I hope I’m wrong and labour does move towards electability and fast.