Why I’m backing Angela Eagle for Labour leader
'Jeremy Corbyn is a good and honourable man, but he is not a leader'
LEADERSHIP is about many things. It’s about vision and empathy, strong values and compassion. But perhaps the most important quality is courage.
Winston Churchill said that ‘courage is what it takes to stand up and speak’ and it is what you need in a leader and a Prime Minister.
It’s about sticking to your beliefs and your values. It’s about keeping your head while all about you are losing theirs. It’s about having the determination and the guts to stand up for the national interest.
Angela Eagle is without doubt a courageous woman. The daughter of a seamstress and a print-worker, she was the first from her family to go to university.
As a working class woman, she has fought courageously for working people all her life. As a trade union official she fought for low paid workers in our NHS.
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In her 24 years in Parliament, she has fought for those who most need a Labour Government.
She had the courage to come out at a time when many felt the need to hide their sexuality.
She had the courage to take on George Osborne at Prime Minister’s Questions, and Boris Johnson in the live EU debate.
But it is in the last few days that her courage has clearly shone through most clearly.
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The Labour Party is crying out for leadership.
Jeremy Corbyn is a good and honourable man, but he is not a leader.
Two in three of our voters think Jeremy should stand down and four in five of his MPs have declared no confidence in him.
If you don’t have the faith of the electorate and your MPs in Parliament, you can’t be a leader.
But for days, nobody was prepared to act. Until Angela did.
Angela had the courage to stand up, to speak out and to put herself forward as the next Leader of the Labour Party.
And if you want to know why that takes courage, just look at what she’s had to deal with in the last few days. A tide of abuse, much of it homophobic and misogynistic. A brick through her office window the day after she announced her candidacy. Death threats.
I’m supporting Angela because she’s the best person for the job. She has the experience and the vision, the empathy and the values. But most of all she has that elusive and essential personal quality; courage.