Would you willingly air your family’s dirty laundry for friends and enemies to pick over?
This is what Labour have done in our leadership contest. But, that’s politics: ugly, intense and with no privacy.
Why should anyone care about a leadership contest within the opposition party?
Because it’s not just the future leadership of the Labour Party that is at stake, but the future of the only party capable of holding this government to account.
Without strong opposition, governments become lazy, sloppy, overbearing dictators of narrow ideology. By example, look at Thatcher’s Poll Tax or Blair’s Iraq War.
Leaders of strong opposition parties should look like future Prime Ministers. They are charismatic, effective and passionate people.
Yet Labour under Jeremy Corbyn is not a government-in-waiting.
It has become weak and slow, unable to speak with clarity against Brexit and against the cuts.
We lack decisive leadership that inspires trust and loyalty, both things that true leaders earn.
Labour need a credible, effective and charismatic leader who has experience beyond the backbenches, experience in the real world.
That’s why, as a former Parliamentary Candidate for Labour in 2015, I am backing Owen Smith.
Britain is in serious trouble without a strong opposition.
We have a Tory government happy to fix electoral rules and blindly follow narrow libertarian ideology, cutting the lifeblood of investment in public services, R&D and the NHS.
If you are a Labour voter, hope that Owen wins, so Labour win a majority and can invest for success rather than firebombing our public sector.
If you are a Tory voter, hope that Owen wins, because even a government you voted for needs to be held to account.
And if you’re a member of the Labour Party, please vote for Owen, because Labour can only transform Britain for the better when we are in government.
The only leader who will give Labour that chance is Owen Smith.
Matthew Mahabadi
PPC for Labour in South Holland and the Deepings, General Election 2015
