Liz Kendall has written an open letter to fellow leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn about his comments last week concerning Clause IV of the Labour Party’s constitution. Kendall says that she would “keep our party’s current constitution”, says that returning to the old Clause IV would be a “big mistake”, and calls on the leadership frontrunner to clarify his view on the subject.

You can read the full letter here:

Dear Jeremy,

Last week you suggested that you might be open to changing the Labour Party constitution – perhaps by “restoring Clause IV as it was originally written”. However, a spokesman for your campaign then suggested that you were not saying you want a return to the old clause IV. Given that voting starts in the leadership election in just a few days, I am writing to ask you to clarify your view.

I understand that you think there should be a debate before any decision is taken. However, leaders should not be afraid to express their own views in such a debate. In fact, during a leadership election it is important that people know the views of the people they are voting for, particularly on something as important as our party’s constitution.

Currently, Clause IV states:

“The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.”

I think this sums up our aims well. It enshrines goals that everyone in our party is committed to without making particular policies an article of faith. The idea is that times change and sometimes policies change too, but they must always be underpinned by our core values.

The old Clause IV confused the goals of our party with a particular set of policies. For example, it committed Labour, constitutionally, to “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service”. I think it would be a big mistake to go back. I would keep our party’s current constitution. Would you change it? If so, would you go back to Clause IV as it was originally written, as you suggested last week?

Yours,

Liz