Labour leadership: the greatest crisis the party ever faced?

Jon Cruddas has said whoever takes the helm as the new leader following Ed Miliband‘s resignation in the wake of a shocking general election defeat must be prepared for a rethink on what the party is all about.

Mr Cruddas, who was drafted in by Mr Miliband to conduct a policy review and oversee the 2015 manifesto, said the party’s election loss was “profound”.

This could be the greatest crisis the Labour party has faced since it was created. Jon Cruddas

The MP for Dagenham and Rainham said: “I always thought that the 2010 election result was the worst defeat for Labour since 1918.

“It was worse than the crisis of 1931 and worse than 1983. But a week ago we suffered an even worse defeat than 2010, so this could be the greatest crisis the Labour party has faced since it was created. It is epic in its scale.”

Labour leadership

The party’s leadership battle is currently being fought by Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham, with Tristram Hunt also expected to throw his hat in the ring.

He said the person chosen to take charge of the party must be someone who “owns” the May 7 defeat, and warned against “swerving around” it.

The candidates, bar Tristram Hunt, stated what Britain would look like under their Labour leadership on Saturday.

Mr Cruddas added that the task for a new leader will be huge, and they must be “prepared to go to the dark places and fundamentally rethink what the Labour party is for, who it represents, what it’s all about”.

Mr Burnham said he respected the decision made by Chuka Umunna, a Blairite favourite, to halt his bid, highlighting the need for a more experienced leader.

Read more: Chuka Umunna withdraws from Labour leadership contest

Speaking to the Observer, Mr Burnham said: “I think it was possibly too early to stand. It is a punishing experience. I have been through it once before, and it does test you on levels you have never been tested on before. You do have to be ready for that before you step over that line.

Leadership is about experience and really having a rounded understanding. Andy Burnham

“Leadership is about experience and really having a rounded understanding that you are facing not just the Labour party but the country at every level. I was not ready to begin to do that after five years in parliament. I might have thought I was, but I wasn’t.”

He admitted that as chief secretary to the Treasury under the Labour government in 2007, too much was spent and the country subsequently did suffer from it.

He said: “We didn’t prioritise deficit reduction early enough. Having made that conscious decision to invest in the early part of the last decade, we should have been bringing that deficit by the middle part of that decade back to surplus.

We didn’t prioritise deficit reduction early enough. Andy Burnham

“I see those issues as our economic credibility, our relationship with business – which is linked to that – and, thirdly, immigration.”

Mr Burnham said he had listened to voters on the issue of an in-out EU referendum – and demanded one be held by next year, while calling on David Cameron to have a “tough but fair” package on immigration.

The shadow health secretary also called to get away from”symbolic” gestures, saying he had never been the “trade unions’ man”, but that he had changed health policy away from the market because of public support.

Read more: Jim Murphy resigns as Scottish Labour leader

There was also case for Scottish Labour running its affairs completely separately, he added, indicating that Jim Murphy had been right to resign.

“I’ve got huge respect for Jim, he’s given his all to the Labour party, but in Scotland we do now need a clean break, we need a process of listening and learning and rebuilding and I believe in this contest I’m the person best placed to do that,” he said.

Relationship with unions

Meanwhile, Mr Umunna launched an attack on unions, who are accused of trying to “hijack” the leadership contest, by warning that there can be “no coronation” for Mr Burnham.

He told the Sunday Times: “We’ve seen where that’s got us in the past. No one group, organisation or person should be allowed to stand in the way of us having this debate and discussion.”

Unite denied the bullying claims. “Unite believes that the election of a new leader is a critical part of the process of addressing the issues Labour faces following its election defeat,” it said.

The party needs an open and democratic contest with a range of views offered. Unite

Barry Sheerman, the MP for Huddersfield, warned that new MPs were being intimidated. This weekend he said: “One new MP said, ‘What am I supposed to do when I am told that if I cross certain people it is the end of my career?’

But the union responded: “The party needs an open and democratic contest with a range of views offered. There is absolutely no truth in Mr Sheerman’s claims.”

Watch Michael Crick’s explanation on who are the runners and the riders for the leadership:

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Who are the runners and riders for the The Labour Party leadership? And who is the new long-shot for the job?Michael Crick explains:

Posted by Channel 4 News on Friday, May 15, 2015