Pro-Remain Labour MP Clive Lewis to run for Labour leader

The shadow Treasury minister, in an article for the Guardian, said he wanted to “unleash” the Labour movement to win its first general election since 2005.

The Norwich South MP said the party had suffered “its own Dunkirk” at the polls, but that a comeback was possible.

He wrote: “I am standing to be leader of the Labour party for the simple reason that if I do not, certain necessary truths may go unspoken during the debates of the coming months.

“Even at this dark hour, as Labour suffers its own Dunkirk, as retreat is forced on us, I’m an optimistic.”

Lewis wrote that should he be selected he would place more faith in party members to help shape policy and make the party more open, democratic and inquisitive.

He wrote: “Jeremy Corbyn’s first promise as leader was never fulfilled. The party was never democratised on the scale or

to the extent that members

were led to expect – they were never empowered to campaign, select candidates or determine policy on the scale that was required.

“This must now change. We don’t need foot soldiers, we need an army of activists who think critically, treat each other with respect and have a serious democratic stake in the movement.

“I don’t want to manage the labour movement, I want to unleash it.”