Diane Abbott labels Labour leadership rivals as ‘geeks in suits’

Diane Abbott MP: "I'm not comparing myself to Barack Obama"

This article titled “Diane Abbott labels Labour leadership rivals as ‘geeks in suits'” was written by Andrew Sparrow, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 16th July 2010 11.02 UTC

So far the Labour leadership contest has been a relatively comradely affair. The five candidates have generally been quite polite about each other. But now, Diane Abbott has decided to stir things up. In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, she’s made some scathing comments about her rivals – Ed Balls in particular.

She dismissed Balls, David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham as “geeky”.

We’re not going to be able to engage with society and, particularly, engage young people in politics, if they see the political class as a caste apart, a strange sort of geeky young men in suits.

She said it was amazing how the four were now disowning the decisions that they supported when they were in government.

You wouldn’t believe to hear them that they were at the heart of the New Labour project for at least a decade. Whether or not they were MPs or not, they were at the heart, they were working for one or the other of the two key people. They were members of cabinet for five years. And yet, at hustings after hustings, they tell you they disagreed with this, they disagreed with that, they don’t know why we did this, they don’t know why we did that … All this handwringing and pretending they weren’t there, that they weren’t at the heart of the project, is slightly amazing.

And she indicated that she did not believe Balls when he denied briefing against Tony Blair.

Well, if Ed Balls says he wasn’t involved, he wasn’t involved, but it must have been his evil twin brother.

Balls has consistently denied being involved in negative briefing against colleagues. In a BBC interview broadcast on Monday, when asked if he would deny briefing against Blairites when he was working for Gordon Brown, Balls replied: “Categorically.”

Abbott is seen as a no-hoper in the contest. But, using an analogy that won’t do anything for her reputation for modesty, she told the BBC that it would be a mistake to write her off.

I’m not comparing myself to Barack Obama, because he’s a once in a life-time figure. But two years ago no one could imagine a black man as president of the United States. If that was possible in America, I think people can change here in Britain as well.

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