On the day Keir Starmer was lambasted for his dreary ‘paint drying’ speech about the economy and for attempting to crawl up the nether regions of big business, Liverpool’s Anna Rothery published a manifesto for the city’s mayoral contest that showed the Labour leader what ambition and vision for real change look like.
While Starmer’s ‘plan’ essentially consisted of some buzzwords and a ‘recovery bond’ that would allow huge corporations and wealthy investors to enrich themselves even further at the expense of ordinary taxpayers, Rothery laid out a plan for transforming the city’s governance that includes:
- genuine ‘levelling up’
- a rigorous clean-up of local politics
- a plan to build decent, council homes
- a local ‘green new deal’
- grassroots democracy to empower communities
- bringing council services fully back ‘in house’ and
- abolishing the executive mayor structure that was imposed on the city without its consent, to return to a more transparent and accountable leader/cabinet model
And all this in a proudly bright red, eye-catching manifesto – none of Starmer’s ‘let’s hint at being Tory really’ purple:
Small wonder Rothery’s supporters fear that the party’s decision to delay the issuing of ballots and re-interview all three shortlisted prospective candidates is cover for an attempt to scupper Rothery’s candidacy. She makes ‘Dear Leader’ look bad by showing what a Labour vision looks like.
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