David Miliband today receives a significant boost to his campaign for the Labour leadership with the endorsement of the influential black MP David Lammy.
Lammy, MP for Tottenham, is highly respected by London’s ethnic-minority communities and about a third of all Labour Party members are based in and around the capital city. Lammy was also recently appointed by Ken Livingstone as chair of the former mayor’s campaign for re-election in London.
In what sources say will be David Miliband’s final major endorsement, Lammy will introduce the former foreign secretary to a congregation of about 200 black people at the Freedom’s Arc church in Tottenham, north London, at 7pm this evening. Presiding over the service and event will be Pastor Nims Obunge, who is responsible for London’s main anti-knife-crime initiative.
Lammy nominated Diane Abbott so she could become the first black figure to stand for a British political party leadership, but — like Jon Cruddas, who also nominated Abbott — has decided to back David Miliband for the job of leader itself. Miliband’s supporters this morning said that support from the two MPs underlines the idea of their man as a “unity candidate” who can appeal to white working-class people as well as ethnic minorities.
Writing exclusively for newstatesman.com, Lammy argues that David Miliband has the “vision” to change the Labour Party and lead it to victory. Lammy refers to the need for Labour to avoid its “comfort zone” — the now-controversial expression over which the Miliband brothers are battling, with Ed Miliband claiming that it is the “New Labour comfort zone” that must be shed. A source close to Lammy says he is friends with both David and Ed Miliband and has spoken to them during the campaign but, in the end, decided — like Douglas Alexander — to opt for David.
Lammy compares Miliband’s campaign with that of Barack Obama, who mobilised his volunteer force to help in US communities. “Already [Miliband] has trained 1,000 community organisers as part of his campaign. In time, they will help communities speak with one voice about the things that matter to them,” Lammy says.
He explains: “I nominated Diane Abbott because I wanted that debate to have as many voices as possible. Three months on, we have reached decision time. The question is which of the candidates can forge a credible and inspiring new project for the left . . . David offers a vision of people enjoying politics again, feeling proud to be in the Labour Party.”
The former education minister goes on: “David offers the hope of a genuinely new political project. This means more than a shopping list of promises to different interest groups. Such a politics can appeal, but never stands the test of time. Instead, David promises a new direction.”
Lammy offers his own critique of New Labour in government, especially on civil liberties and the economy, and adds: “David offers change because he understands that a new economic model doesn’t just mean more regulation of the banks; it means a market economy built on the values of mutuality, reciprocity and local decision-making. He gets that people should be able to make decisions together as citizens, not just be treated as consumers.”
He concludes: “For this vision alone I would support David. But there is one more vital thing that he will change: our habit of retreating in a comfort zone in opposition — and staying there while the Tories do great damage to our country’s social fabric. The people who depend on us cannot afford us to do this again. They need us to hold the government to account and to provide a credible and exciting alternative. In David Miliband we have one. I, for one, will be voting for him.”
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