Leadership candidate singles out frontrunner’s economic policy for criticism and says he is offering old solutions to old problems

Yvette Cooper has claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s policies are not credible and accused him of offering “old solutions to old problems”, in a speech injecting further antagonism into the Labour leadership contest.

Outlining what she described as her “feminist” vision for Labour, Cooper said Corbyn, the leftwinger who has become the surprise runaway favourite in the race, was proposing economic policies that could increase inflation, cut investment and undermine growth.

But the shadow home secretary was taken to task by audience members after her speech in Manchester for lacking an authentic voice.

She claimed Corbyn would damage Labour’s reputation as an internationalist party, saying: “Internationalism is a core Labour principle and I will fight for it.”



Tony Blair: Even if you hate me, please don’t take Labour over the cliff edge Read more

Corbyn has been the subject of increasingly alarmist attacks from centrists and rightwingers in the Labour party – most strikingly from Tony Blair, who said on Wednesday that the party could face annihilation if Corbyn won – but his three leadership rivals, Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall, have been relatively restrained in their rhetoric.

However, Cooper said on Thursday she was determined to speak out even at the risk of losing votes, and she singled out Corbyn’s flagship economic policy – a massive infrastructure investment programme, possibly funded by quantitative easing (QE) – for particular criticism.

“Quantitive easing to pay for infrastructure now the economy is growing is really bad economics,” said Cooper in the speech, extracts from which were released in advance.

“Quantitive easing was a special measure when the economy collapsed, liquidity dried up, interest rates fell as low as they could go. But printing money year after year to pay for things you can’t afford doesn’t work – and no good Keynesian would ever call for it.

“History shows it hits your currency, hits investment, pushes up inflation and makes it harder not easier to get the sustainable growth in a global economy we need to tackle poverty and support our public services.”

Cooper acknowledged that at a time of global change when the “old parties don’t seem to be working”, people were attracted by the kind of “subversive” politics that Corbyn was offering.

But, without criticising him in personal terms, she said his policies were not just not credible but also not radical.

“So tell me what you think is more radical. Bringing back clause IV, spending billions of pounds we haven’t got switching control of some power stations from a group of white middle-aged men in an energy company to a group of white middle-aged men in Whitehall, as Jeremy wants? Or extending SureStart, giving mothers the power and confidence to transform their own lives and transform their children’s lives for years to come?

“And at a time when we are dealing with a global climate change threat, when international borders have ebbed, when extremism doesn’t recognise nations and when we need to work together more than ever, is it really radical to quit Nato, to prevaricate over membership of the EU or trash our reputation as an internationalist party. I say no.”

Cooper came under fire from some members of the audience. Diana Kealey, 72, a retired university lecturer, said she was disappointed: “I would love to see a woman leader of the Labour party, absolutely no question about it. But I still haven’t heard you find your own voice. Instead of standing behind a podium, come out. You read from notes: you’re a very intelligent, well-informed woman, you don’t need to read from notes … It’s very late in the day to be saying this, but whatever happens in the election, I urge you: find your own voice.”

After listening politely to the 20-minute speech, one man said: “You say there’s a need for a radical but credible alternative. What is it? I’ve not heard it this morning.”

Cooper replied: “I think the most radical thing we could do at all would be to put family at the centre of our economy, the centre of our society. To have a really feminist approach to the way the economy works.”

In a dig at Corbyn she had said in her speech: “Tell me what you think is more radical? Bringing back clause IV: spending billions of pounds we haven’t got switching control of some power stations from a group of white middle-aged men in an energy company to a group of white middle-aged men in Whitehall? Or extending Sure Start: giving mothers the power and confidence to transform their own lives and transform their children’s lives for years to come?”

Corbyn was widely viewed as a rank outsider when the contest started and, with the party using the alternative vote, some of his rivals seemed to be going easy on him at hustings events in the hope of picking up the second-preference votes of his supporters.



Poll puts Jeremy Corbyn on course for leadership victory – should we trust it? Read more

But two YouGov polls of members have now been published showing Corbyn far ahead of Cooper, Burnham and Kendall, and the revelation on Wednesday that 190,000 trade unionists and 120,000 new registered supporters will be voting in the contest puts him in an even stronger position. Polling suggests that these two groups are even more pro-Corbyn than ordinary party members.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, Jack Straw, the Labour former foreign secretary and a Cooper supporter, said Corbyn’s QE plan was “economic illiteracy”.

Straw said: “There is a major difference between quantitative easing which was used, safely, to improve the solvency and liquidity of the banks, and what [Corbyn is proposing] that you just print loads more money and use that to pay people’s wages. If you do that, we know from the history of the Weimar Republic, we know from Venezuela, and you see the beginnings of this in Greece, that it is bound to end in tears.”

He also claimed that Corbyn was unsuited to lead the party. “I actually think that the person who is most scared of all of Jeremy Corbyn becoming a leader is Jeremy Corbyn. He never, ever thought that this was going to happen,” Straw said.

But Ken Livingstone, the Labour former mayor of London and a Corbyn supporter, defended the QE plan. He said QE had been used to prop up the banks without causing any damage to the economy.

“If we can get the Bank of England to fund the banking system, why don’t we get them to build us a proper broadband system as modern and efficient as you’ve got in many of our competitors,” Livingstone said.

On Newsnight on Wednesday, Labour MP John Mann said Cooper, Burnham and Kendall should agree on one candidate to take on Corbyn in a head-to-head debate.

“Jeremy Corbyn is framing the debates. It’s him versus the rest. What there needs to be is the rest need to have one candidate,” Mann said.

“The three of them can agree that let the MPs renominate informally. Whoever gets the most nominations amongst those three should stand as the candidate. Let’s have a proper head-to-head, including a televised debate, which would have a huge amount of interest, and then Jeremy Corbyn can be put under some proper scrutiny with actual debates.”