Labour’s Dan Jarvis - Strong candidates can win election
The General Election will be won and lost on the strength of local candidates rather than the popularity of party leaders, Labour’s Dan Jarvis has said.
The Labour moderate, who has been a vocal opponent of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, insisted voters were focused on supporting ‘candidates with a strong track record’.
Mr Jarvis, a decorated para who saw action in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, also vowed that Labour would be tough on terrorism if the party won the election in the June 8 poll.
The former shadow justice minister was in the Black Country to campaign alongside Labour candidates Valerie Vaz of Walsall South, Dudley North’s Ian Austin and Pat McFadden of Wolverhampton South East.
Focused
“None of us vote for the Prime Minister and I think for a lot of people their minds will be focused on who they want as their local MP,” said Mr Jarvis, who last year warned that Labour faced annihilation at the polls if Mr Corbyn was re-elected as party leader.
“People will look at Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn and form their own views, but that is not the most important factor when deciding who to vote for.
“This is a very different election in that individual candidates are making more of a case for themselves rather than the national leadership.
“I believe that our manifesto is strong, but although debates will take place on a national level people realise that when they vote they want candidates with a strong track record to send to Parliament to represent them.”
Asked about the performance of the two party leaders in Monday night’s televised grilling from Jeremy Paxman, Mr Jarvis said: “Theresa May was evasive and struggled to answer even the most basic of questions.
“As we have seen throughout this campaign she relies political soundbites, which I don’t think goes down very well with the public. Jeremy Corbyn put in a strong performance.”
Mr Jarvis, who spoke of his sorrow at the Manchester terror attack that killed 22 people last week, backed Mr Austin over his support for ‘measures to provide the security and intelligences services and the armed forces with the tools they need to protect the public’.
In Walsall South he visited Manor Hospital to back Ms Vaz’s campaign for free parking for patients, staff and visitors by increasing the tax on private medical insurance premiums.
