Rebecca Long-Bailey sets out her pitch to become Labour leader
The Salford and Eccles MP hopes to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
Last updated 7th Jan 2020
Rebecca Long-Bailey has finally confirmed that she's entering the race to become the next Labour leader - announcing herself as a "proud socialist".
The 40-year-old shadow business secretary, who grew up in Greater Manchester, has acknowledged that the party currently isn't trusted on Brexit or tackling anti-Semitism.
"We weren't trusted on Brexit,'' she said.
" We weren't trusted as a party to tackle the crisis of anti-Semitism.
"We weren't trusted on our policies, no matter how radical or detailed they were. They simply didn't hit the ground running.''
"Many candidates in the leadership election say they will not return to the triangulation and Tory-lite policies that held our party back before Jeremy.
"But we need a leader that can be trusted with our socialist agenda. A leader who is totally committed to the policies and has the political backbone to defend them.''
Ms Long-Bailey has faced claims she would be the "continuity candidate'' rather than breaking from the agenda championed by Mr Corbyn.
But in a break from Mr Corbyn, she signalled she would be prepared to press the nuclear button if she became prime minister.
"If you have a deterrent you have to be prepared to use it,'' she said, but stressed she was "not going to be a warmonger''.
The Salford and Eccles MP has repeatedly highlighted her childhood experience, growing up in the shadow of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium and watching her father worry about job losses as a docker and trade union representative.
She has been backed by party chairman Ian Lavery - who had been considering a leadership bid of his own - and shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, her friend and flatmate.
In addition to Ms Long-Bailey; five other candidates have announced they intend to stand for the leadership: Sir Keir Starmer, frontbenchers Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis, and backbenchers Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy.
If successful, Ms Long-Bailey would be Labour's first female leader, and has backed the party's education spokeswoman Angela Rayner - also her flatmate - for the deputy's post.
An MP for only four-and-a-half years, Ms Long-Bailey took a prominent role in the last general election campaign, which saw the party receive its biggest hammering since 1935.
But supporters insist she is a good communicator whose northern roots would make the party seem less London-focused and help take back the previously lifelong Labour seats it lost to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives.
The ex-phone bank worker is now hoping for a call from Labour's membership asking her to step up to the top job.
The new leader is to be announced at a conference on Saturday April 4.