Fmr. UK secretary slams Labour over vote failure
UK’s former business secretary Peter Mandelson has criticized the Labour party’s complacency over ‘devolution to northern England,’ saying the Tories seized on the party’s inadequacies in the May 7 general election.
Mandelson, one of the key architects of New Labour and a senior figure in both former PMs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments, believes that ex-Labour chief Ed Miliband did not do enough while in opposition to stop the ruling Tories dominating the narrative on northern devolution. The Tories constantly promoted the idea of a “northern powerhouse” with Manchester at the heart of their vision.
Mandelson feels Labour’s response was catastrophic. He said that Labour “stepped back and passed the ball to the Conservatives and the coalition. What did they do? They ran with it... and it was a strong part of their appeal both in the North West but also nationally and the Labour Party, I'm afraid, has a long way to catch up. But catch up, it must do.”
"I think [Chancellor of the Exchequer] George Osborne got it. I think he got it because he saw an electoral advantage in it... and we let him do so. And that was a huge political mistake," he told the state-run BBC.
This is while Miliband claimed that the Labour party had a better plan for devolution for the north of England, a plan that was more radical than anything the coalition could muster up. But many political analysts and voters felt that Miliband could not coherently shape his message to the electorate, something that the Tories did very well, resulting in their first overall majority since 1992.
Mandelson described Labour’s northern strategy as a “huge political mistake,” believing that Labour did not have the political or economic polies required to win. Mandelson is currently running to be the chancellor of Manchester University saying,"Let's be honest, something very exciting is happening in this region as part of the Northern Powerhouse."
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