Rebecca Long-Bailey in veiled swipe at Jeremy Corbyn as she vows to end Labour 'mismanagement'

Rebecca Long-Bailey has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of Labour as she said "mismanagement and a bad organisational culture" had played a part in its election drubbing.



The Labour leadership hopeful vowed to "professionalise" the party if she takes on the top job.

And, in what will be seen as a dig at cronyism under the current set-up, the Shadow Business Secretary said "promotions will be based on what you know, not who you know" under her leadership.

She added: "I don’t care which wing of the party you’re from. If you’re competent, professional and get the job done, I want you working for Labour."

The Guardian reports that Ms Long-Bailey - who urged Labour to go "toe-to-toe" with Boris Johnson's top adviser Dominic Cummings - refused to single out any individuals for criticism.

But she cast a scathing verdict on some aspects of the party's campaign, which was overseen by key allies of Mr Corbyn including his former chief of staff Karie Murphy, general secretary Jennie Formby and communications chief Seumas Milne.

Ms Long-Bailey said the party's social media campaign operation "fell back in some areas and didn’t match up to the Tory strategy of pumping out tailored, persuasive content".

She meanwhile joined those critical of the party's organising strategy, saying: "Targeting the wrong seats based on partial data meant activists wasted efforts campaigning in places we couldn’t win."

The Shadow Business Secretary also pledged to allow Labour members to visit its headquarters for regular open days and vowed to "move as many operations as possible outside of London".

Ms Long-Bailey has previously given Mr Corbyn a "10 out of 10" for his leadership of the party.

But she has urged Labour to stop trying to "save" working class voters from themselves and do more to connect with voters who "felt they should be rewarded for working hard".

Her frank assessment of Labour's defeat comes as she dukes it out with the three other contenders for the party's leadership.

She has already secured a place on the final ballot alongside Sir Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy after winning the support of the Unite, the Fire Brigades' Union and the Bakers and Allied Food Workers Union.

Emily Thornberry has yet to secure enough support to make the ballot of members.

The winner will be declared on 4 April.