Labour leadership: if Laura Pidcock had held her seat

[AdminSTB]

I've been asked to create this thread.

Supposing Laura Pidcock had retained her North West Durham seat two months ago. How might she have fared had she entered the Labour leadership race?

[The Bishop]

Shouldn't this be in "Alternate History"?

But to answer the question, I'm not convinced she would have been a leadership candidate. I know finso amongst others thinks otherwise, but most left wing people I "follow" seemed to think it more likely she would go for the deputy post this time. RLB has been the "preferred" left candidate to succeed Corbyn for over a year.

[AdminSTB]

She's very young - just 32. That would quite possibly have made her the youngest major party leader in modern times.

[Deleted]

Feb 22, 2020 10:36:00 GMT AdminSTB said:

She's very young - just 32. That would quite possibly have made her the youngest major party leader in modern times.

Still could be an MP again & maybe a party leader in the future ? Depends on where the labour party goes & also if she stays as inflexible as she seems to have been.

[The Bishop]

Feb 22, 2020 10:39:39 GMT bert said:

Feb 22, 2020 10:36:00 GMT AdminSTB said:

She's very young - just 32. That would quite possibly have made her the youngest major party leader in modern times.

Still could be an MP again & maybe a party leader in the future ? Depends on where the labour party goes & also if she stays as inflexible as she seems to have been.

Her post-defeat piece was interesting in that regard, showed some willingness to rethink certain things.

[hebdo]

In this scenario I suspect we would have Keir Starmer and Laura Pidcock leading the race for Labour leader. With the former campaigning from the centre/right of the party despite managing to entice a few notable names such as Laura Parker, former momentum national coordinator and Ricky Tomlinson, ex of Socialist Labour Party of all people, and the latter campaigning from the left.
Philips and Thornberry would both have thrown their (peculiar) hats into the ring and Nandy would still be likely to have tested the waters and gone for it.
With the organised right in the form of Labour First and a reenergised but much diminished Progress sniffing the air, they would still have gone for Keir Starmer as the anyone-but-Pidcock candidate. As Pidcock is the chair of Richard Burgon’s deputy leadership campaign candidate and both supported Jeremy in his leadership elections we would have a far more coherent and formidable left slate.
Would the Labour ‘moderates’ still be threatening to walk/flounce in the event of a Pidcock victory?

[mondialito]

I agree with The Bishop that the Deputy Leadership would have been the more likely race for Pidcock to enter at this stage and she may have consolidated the left vote more effectively than Burgon has in real life.

[Sibboleth]

Given her electoral track-record to date, I'm not sure if there's any reason to assume that she would have been a notably more credible candidate than Burgon. I suppose there might have been more enthusiasm from the die-hards though.

[jamie]

Assuming she was the official continuity Corbyn candidate rather than RLB, i think she would perform a couple points worse as unlike RLB i doubt she would make even modest concessions eg; on anti-semitism, Trident etc.

[WJ]

If she had gone for Deputy, would it have pushed Rayner to go for leader instead of deputy?

Incidentally, has footage of the NW Durham declaration emerged yet?

[The Bishop]

Feb 22, 2020 18:49:13 GMT Sibboleth said:

Given her electoral track-record to date, I'm not sure if there's any reason to assume that she would have been a notably more credible candidate than Burgon. I suppose there might have been more enthusiasm from the die-hards though.

Until this thread I actually didn't know she was just in her early 30s, I suppose that could indicate she still has "room for growth" as a politician.

[jamesg]

There would be some real life in the campaign had she survived in her seat and run for the leadership.
It has been rather dull overall. Pidcock would be fuel for the tabloids, as Corbyn was, more than RLB could ever be.
Of course, unless it was particular local circumstances which allowed her to hold, the swing to allow Pidcock to hold would have curtailed the scale of the defeat Labour suffered. Less of a defeat would make a different kind of leadership debate.