The Labour party has not learned the right lessons from the Conservatives about changing leader, a senior cabinet minister has warned, saying in a swipe at potential challengers that “entitlement is not a qualification”.
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said he was worried that British politics “rewards the wrong behaviour” and there was little credit for the work of his own department, including negotiating trade deals, rescue packages for companies and preserving British industry.
“I think we reward the wrong behaviour in politics … if you want stability, you know people who put their heart and soul into delivering stability and authority … it’s not what is rewarded,” he told reporters in Westminster.
“Entitlement is not a qualification for leadership. And until we ask the question of what is a qualification for leadership … then I think we’re always going to end up in this cycle of change. Because we simply reward the wrong behaviour, and if that gets you to the top, then we have another spin at the dice, the throw of the dice.”
Kyle said his department had just completed a new trade deal with the Gulf, and begun the formal legislation for nationalising British Steel, a chemicals industry support package and one for the ceramics industry. “That is just in the last fortnight in this job,” he said.
But he said there was little reward in the political cycle for those focused on achievement – and declined to blame Keir Starmer’s leadership for the party’s perilous position in the polls.
“I think leadership is more than one person,” Kyle said. “If you’re running a country, leadership is a government-wide affair. My frustration, if I’m being very honest, is that I think the Tories have learned the lesson of the Labour party in opposition – we went to extreme positions and ideological positions with [the former leader Jeremy Corbyn].
“And I don’t think we’ve learned the lessons of the Tory party in government. Where every time there was a problem experienced with their government, there was only one solution, and that’s changing the leader of the top.”
Kyle said the Conservatives changed leader when they should have examined their own record of accomplishment. “There was never any acceptance by the Tory party at the time that the challenges that they had were related to a programme of government.
“There seems to be a lot of people that quite conveniently think it’s easy to blame one person and not accept responsibility for all of our collective endeavours.”
Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who is likely to contest any leadership challenge, said he believed the party needed a “battle of ideas” to set a new direction, not a coronation for Burnham as the next prime minister should the mayor of Greater Manchester win the Makerfield byelection.
“I think Andy will win in Makerfield … I can see Andy’s strengths. I think he needs to be tested,” he told Bloomberg.
“I think his ideas need to be tested and so do mine. I’m probably a rare thing in the Labour party. I’m a monarchist. But this is one coronation I’m not enthusiastic about. I think you need a battle of ideas, he needs to set out his stall, I need to set out mine, there may be other people. There may be women. We have brilliant women who might want to step forward.”
