Lord Adonis: There's no need to elect a woman as Labour leader

18 January 2020, 12:03

Lord Andrew Adonis thinks Labour needs to elect the best person for the job and he thinks that is Sir Keir Starmer.

Andrew Pierce said: "There has been a lot of pressure from women MPs. Harriet Harman, people like that, saying it's time for God's sake, the Labour Party elects a woman leader for the first time in its history.

"You're going for the only man in the lineup.

"Do you have some sympathy for that view that it is time the Labour Party found a woman, and there are four women running, all of them, arguably, qualified to do the job?"

Lord Adonis: There's no need to elect a woman as Labour leader
Lord Adonis: There's no need to elect a woman as Labour leader. Picture: PA

Adonis replied: "I think we should go for the person who can win the election. That's our duty.

"Our duty is to put before the country an alternative to Boris Johnson that can win and that will be the view equally of women as well as men.

"I certainly don't think we should put a less good woman in rather than a better man. Actually, that isn't the view of women members I've spoken to either."

He continued: "I think that would be a profound mistake to go in the direction of having the second best or third best leader that love rather than the best.

"We've just lost four elections, four elections in a row. I mean, apart from Tony Blair, no one has won an election now for the Labour Party since Harold Wilson. It is time to get real."