Cruddas Declares

Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas has just declared on the Simon Mayo programme that he will run for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. His USP is that he wants to reconnect the public with the party and the party with the leadership and thinks the post of Deputy Prime Minister should be scrapped. His is a new and important voice in the conversation about where Labour goes next. As I've written here before he seems like a good thing to me.

Comments

[politicalcorrespondent]

We very much agree with all of that, but one quick point - not sure that Cruddas is actually saying the DPM post should necessarily be abolished, just that the deputy leader of the party should not be the DPM and have a separate role instead.

Jon's campaign is great news though.

[Dave Hill]

I expect you are better informed than I but in a recent Guardian article he wrote:

"Labour is at a critical point in its history and, in the midst of debate about 'renewal', many ideas for reinvention of structures and practices are being canvassed. One that deserves serious attention is the idea that John Prescott should be our last deputy prime minister. This is no criticism of Prescott - he has done the party's heavy lifting with strength and dignity for over a decade. It is the office that has outlived its usefulness."

That seems to mean he thinks the DPM post ought to go completely, though I guess any PM has to have a stand-in). Do I detect a grey area here?!?!? The main point, of course, is that he doesn't want the party deputy to become dep. PM - he or she has to have a strictly party role.

Here's the whole piece if you didn't see it...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1872941,00.html

...and note my comment on the thread!

[politicalcorrespondent]

I certainly don't think Jon would like to see the Prescott model continuing, but at the end of the day it would be up to the PM whether to appoint a DPM or not.

Jon may have meant that there shouldn't be a Deputy PM at all, but the key thing is that he would be able to take on a different role for himself.

I don't think that having a DPM who can shape a government dept around whatever they happen to be interested in at the time has worked all that well, so I certainly agree with him on that and many other things!