Keir Starmer has a lot to offer

The Labour Party is in the process of making a decision that will decide whether it can recover from the defeat in 2019 General Election. All the candidates have much to offer and are making their case well.

No doubt for some the decision will be difficult. Others may well have made up their minds on the simple binary of Left-wing-Right-wing.

The choice should be whoever is best placed to pull the party together. Someone who can form a front bench of all talents and across the spectrum in the party.

That is what Harold Wilson did in the 1960s. His government included Roy Jenkins on the right and Barbar Castle on the left; it included Crossman and Crossland, and Tony Benn with Jim Callaghan. It presented a formidable team.

Keir Starmer brings to the top table a formidable career outside politics, having been a human rights lawyer and then Director of Public Prosecutions. He is a man of integrity and commitment who believes in a fairer society where opportunities are more widely spread.

Labour now needs to put aside its factionalism. It needs to vote with both head and heart.

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