Labour win ‘down to Keir Starmer changing the Labour Party fundamentally’, says Liz Kendall

We spoke to Labour frontbencher Liz Kendall and asked how it feels to be in power after so long.

Liz Kendall: It feels like an incredible victory, and I am so proud of Keir and the whole team. And we know we got to roll our sleeves up and get going straight away, but just for now, it’s a huge, huge, huge win. And it is down to Keir Starmer changing the Labour Party fundamentally. And if you’d asked me the morning after the 2019 election whether we would ever have been here, I wouldn’t have believed it. But we’ve done that.

Jackie Long: An emotional day.

Liz Kendall: Really. Because for all the cynicism, I’m in this to change people’s lives. Most people go into politics to change the world, and we’ve got a chance now, and we’ve got to prove to people because they do want change. They want it desperately. But we got to prove to them it’s possible.

Jackie Long: Every single shadow minister, every candidate who came out, was very, very careful to tell us all, we’re taking nothing for granted.

Liz Kendall: And we didn’t.

Jackie Long: But behind the scenes, is this what you expected? Is this what you were banking on?

Liz Kendall: I didn’t, but I’m a child of my political upbringing. I remember the morning after the 92 election where I really, really thought we’d win and I was so devastated when when we didn’t. In fact, that was the morning I joined the Labour Party. But we didn’t stop fighting to the last minute. We targeted our resources on the seats we needed to win, not just because we want a strong majority for change, but because we believe Labour MPs are better.

Jackie Long: But the reality is, our political editor, Gary Gibbon, described it as a landslide, but a loveless landslide. Low turnout, share of the vote for you unchanged in England.

Liz Kendall: I’m afraid I disagree with that analysis because I think it’s actually testament to our strategy, which is I don’t want to pile up votes in existing Labour seats. It was a strategy to win. And as I said, it’s not just so that we get a majority so we can put our principles into practice, it’s because we see the difference that Labour MPs make to people’s lives.

Jackie Long: But the share of the vote unchanged in England, it’s gone down in Wales.

Liz Kendall: But the scale of the victory, winning in places that I never thought possible, in Suffolk, in Aldershot. But let me say we know that we have to earn people’s trust.

Jackie Long: Just on the numbers and some of the the defeats, because this was not without its defeats for Labour. You lost Jonathan Ashworth to a pro-Palestinian candidate. Khalid Mahmood, an ongoing row over Labour’s response to Gaza, that won’t go away, that will be a will be a problem for the new prime minister.

Liz Kendall: And I take all of that. I take those losses seriously. And my view has always been that you don’t tell voters they’re wrong when they give you a message, you listen.

Jackie Long: But they did tell you and would argue that Keir Starmer didn’t listen to them.

Liz Kendall: And we know we have to do more to earn back their trust. They don’t take away from that quite historic victory that we have seen. Jackie: Were there mistakes made on that? I think what I have seen is just how volatile politics is, which is why we are very proud of our campaign and this mandate for change. But we also know how quickly things can change.

Jackie Long: On the very specific issue of Gaza, mistakes made by the party, how will they deal with it now?

Liz Kendall: I think we have to show our passions about improving the lives of people in Palestine and the way that we believe that will happen, the way that we will have a safe and secure Palestinian state. We have to have those two-state solutions, safe and secure alongside…

Jackie Long: The party was criticised, noises off from within for its so-called Ming vase strategy. Not really taking any risks, not really talking about any radical policies. Does that change today with this victory?

Liz Kendall: No, we campaigned as a changed Labour party and we will govern as a changed Labour party.

Jackie Long: So not a radical Labour party?

Liz Kendall: All great reforming Labour governments have made huge changes. If I look back at the creation of the NHS, the welfare state, the Equal Pay Act, great changes that the Labour government makes. So change is hard. But it’s possible.