Leadership contender says she wants to ‘go toe to toe with the likes of Dominic Cummings’

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Rebecca Long-Bailey has said she would employ “ruthless” campaign tactics to lead the Labour party to election victory against Boris Johnson and his special adviser Dominic Cummings.

At a Labour leadership hustings in Brighton on Saturday, the shadow business secretary promised to “go toe to toe with the likes of Dominic Cummings”. She said this would involve establishing a media rebuttal unit to fight back against “smears” and placing greater emphasis on digital campaigning.

Cummings was the architect of the Vote Leave campaign, whose success was attributed in part to its use of micro-targeted online and social media advertising.

Johnson also credits Cummings with coming up with the Get Brexit Done slogan used in the Tories’ 2019 election campaign in which they secured a landslide victory.

Long-Bailey said: “We were nowhere near in this election campaign. They were targeting demographics – your hobbies, your income groups – and we were just putting out nice memes and videos, and that’s not good enough. We have got to be ruthless, forensic, and we have got to fight back.”

Long-Bailey has published a list of reforms designed to flush out “vested interests” from UK politics and end the “gentleman’s club in Westminster”, accusing donors of attempting to influence government policy by giving large donations.

It comes after it was revealed the Conservative Party raised a £37m war chest for the 2019 general election – three times as much as Labour received, and more than all other parties put together.

Her proposed reforms if she enters Downing Street include shining a light on corporate lobbying and banning MPs from taking second jobs.

Long-Bailey’s proposals include:

• A ban on political donations from tax avoiders, tax evaders and those not domiciled in the UK, in a move dubbed “no influence without taxation”.

• To end secrecy in party funding by closing loopholes that allow “shell” companies to funnel money into politics, and end the donor clubs that hide the names of those gifting cash.

• To introduce a corporate lobbying register covering in-house lobbyists and think tanks. The register would be extended to meetings with all senior government staff.

• A “no delays” system where all large political donations accepted by political parties are declared immediately, including during an election campaign.

• A ban on MPs taking paid second jobs, with exceptions for those working to keep a professional qualification such as nursing.

• Tighter controls to prevent former ministers lobbying government for a minimum of five years after leaving office.

Long-Bailey said: “The centralisation of power in Westminster has created a hotbed of collusion between the political class and corporations, and a revolving door between government departments and lobbyists.

She called for “rapid devolution of power to regions and nations, as well as a democratically-elected senate outside of London to replace the unelected House of Lords” and added: “Until we end the gentleman’s club in Westminster by stopping the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, action on the climate emergency will lose out to vested interests buying policy.”

Writing in the Mirror this week, Keir Starmer also vowed to create a media “attack unit” aimed a exposing “Tory failure” if he is elected leader.

But on Saturday he said the party must not adopt Cummings’ strategy of attacking the UK’s free press or else it would risk creating a polarised media model similar to that in the US.

Since the election, Johnson has opened a consultation on decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee, which accounts for the lion’s share of the BBC’s income. This month journalists walked out of a No 10 briefing after it became apparent that some reporters had been excluded.

Starmer said: “Part of Cummings’ approach is to attack independent journalism and to try to push us down an American model that will make it 10 times worse. This is a culture war. It is very important we diversify the press, we call out the vilification, but that we stand up for an independent and free press.”

Lisa Nandy, the only backbencher left in the race for the top job, said she wanted to introduce a social media tax to help provide local news outlets with long-term funding. The Wigan MP also said she would like to “mutualise” the BBC so that the public could have a greater say over its running.

“I want to see us mutualise the BBC, not because I hate the BBC but because I believe in the licence fee and I believe it must be far more accountable to the public and the people who fund the BBC,” she said. “It would be far less open to manipulation from this rightwing Tory government.”

The leadership contenders did not address the resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Office’s most senior civil servant, who quit amid a bullying row with the home secretary, Priti Patel.

Voting has started in the three-candidate leadership contest and the winner is due to be announced on 4 April.