It didn’t take me long to make my decision to quit the Labour leadership contest. It wasn’t overnight, but I wasn’t stewing on it for days. Throughout any contest you will always be questioning if you’re the right person and whether you should be doing it – certainly, if you’re a woman anyway. A man is less likely to doubt themselves in the same way.
People keep talking to me as if I’m totally devastated but I’m absolutely fine. I don’t feel any different because I’m still going to be working my arse off to make the Labour party better. It is nice to be home, though.
I’ve had total kindness from everybody; literally thousands and thousands of people have messaged me. Saying that, my husband didn’t even mention it. We went for dinner at my mother-in-law’s the evening after my announcement and spent the night discussing other things. Hardly any of my family and friends follow politics, which is exactly why we need to make sure we’re cutting through to the public because normal people have a million other things to think about. We talk about what’s going on at school and real things in our lives. When I went on Question Time, my friend asked if I’d won because she thought it was Mastermind!
Now I have to use my voice to try and make the Labour party relevant to people’s lives again. I don’t need a fancy job to do that; I’ve proven that you can cut through as a backbencher anyway. It’s going to be harder now there isn’t the parliamentary pantomime we’ve had for the last two years with a hung parliament. Sometimes there were more people watching the parliamentary channel than were watching Netflix. The best chance we’ve got for a credible Labour party today is if Lisa Nandy or Keir Starmer win. I’m going to vote for Lisa first and Keir second.
We must always keep in mind that there are structural problems in society that tell us being prime minister is the job of a man. I’d be happy with either candidate regardless of their gender, but while there are brilliant and capable women in the race - and I see Lisa as being exactly that – the fact she’s female is a cherry on the top.
The changing world of work and global warming are the two big issues we need to focus on now: for far too long the issue of social care has been kicked like a can down the road, while woman are doing billions of pounds of free child or social care.
I haven’t been in Parliament much since Christmas, but when I have the atmosphere has been flat. It might be more peaceful, and there are fewer people shouting outside, but that isn't a political environment where I can see an obvious pathway for change. A bit of struggle and tension is necessary. I’m not suggesting we start shouting at each other again, but resigning ourselves isn’t an option either.
I’m hopeful for the future and I’m definitely not going anywhere. I’ll keep saying the things that need to be said. Who knows, I could still be prime minister one day. Why not? I definitely haven’t ruled out running again.
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