‘We won’t win in 2020 unless Corbyn changes’ – Labour’s 2015 candidate for South Holland and The Deepings

Labour’s parliamentary candidate for South Holland and The Deepings in this year’s General Election says the party is heading for defeat in 2020 under Jeremy Corbyn.

Left-wing Mr Corbyn was elected as the new Labour leader on Saturday (September 12) but, for Matthew Mahabadi, he was the last choice of the four candidates in the party members’ vote.

Mr Mahabadi, who came third in the 2015 General Election behind John Hayes (Conservative) and David Parsons (UKIP), does not think he is the right man to prevent Labour suffering a third-straight defeat in five years’ time.

He said: “I do respect Jeremy and I do think he’s a very intelligent individual, but I just think it’s a dangerous move [to elect him leader].

“I think we’re going to lose the election unless Jeremy is willing to compromise and take on board the counsel of some of those around him.”

Mr Corbyn’s opposition to austerity measures is the main bone of contention for Mr Mahabadi, who said: “What he’s suggesting from a pure theory point of view is fairly accepted as correct by economists.

“The difficulty is that we have to accept the fact that we live in a world dominated by a media which is biased against those views – The Sun and The Times being newspapers criticised by Jeremy.

“I’m a pragmatist – Labour has to be a party which is electable in order to fight the good fight.

“A lot of the party voted with their heart and I think Tony Blair was wrong to say that those who support Jeremy needed a heart transplant.”

He added: “I’m deeply concerned we are going to lose the middle window in which the public are seated. That’s the reason I voted as I did.

“I voted for Yvette Cooper first, then Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, and Jeremy Corbyn was actually my last choice.”

Meanwhile, Mr Mahabadi said he was aligned with Labour MP Chuka Umunna’s view on Britain needing to remain in the EU.

The shadow business secretary quit the front benches just a day after Mr Corbyn’s leadership success, saying: “It is my view that we should support the UK remaining a member of the EU, notwithstanding the outcome of any renegotiation by the prime minister, and I cannot envisage any circumstances where I would be campaigning alongside those who would argue for us to leave; Jeremy has made it clear to me that he does not wholeheartedly share this view.”

Mr Mahabadi said Mr Umunna was “right to take a stance against Jeremy on that”.

Spalding resident Rodney Sadd, a member of Unite trade union and both the union delegate and vice-chairman for South Holland and The Deepings Constituency Labour Party, is a little more positive about Mr Corbyn’s prospects – but admits the new leader must be prepared to be quickly judged.

Mr Sadd, who made Mr Corbyn his second preference behind Andy Burnham, said: “I think we’re looking at the same agenda including more decent, affordable homes, improved workers’ rights and better pay but the problem is that if he doesn’t deliver there will be a vacancy.

“There’s been a lot of fighting since the weekend and some people are saying things have gone back 15 years, but I don’t think that will be the case. One man doesn’t make a party.

“As a longstanding Labour member I’m not going to leave the party because I didn’t get my own way.”

Mr Sadd said Mr Corbyn’s performance at the annual Labour Party conference later this month will be “very interesting”. Mr Sadd is attending not as a delegate, but an observer.