Long-bailey: I’d love to rule with an iron fist

‘Continuity Corbyn’ candidate said to be telling tales about background to appear more working class

THE front-runner in the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader once said she would like to rule the party with an “iron fist”, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Rebecca Long-bailey has the support of Jon Lansman, the Momentum chief, and Len Mccluskey, the head of the Unite union, and is viewed as the hard-left “continuity Corbyn” option.

In an interview with online magazine the Salford Star before her election as an MP in 2015, Ms Long-bailey said she had no control over other members when presented with criticism of her predecessors, Ian Stewart and Hazel Blears.

“I can’t rule it with an iron fist, much as I’d love to,” she said. “It’s up to councillors and politicians to be accountable.”

Members have criticised the Labour leadership in recent months for attempting to centralise control over the party and remove decision-making from its constituency branches.

In several seats, Labour HQ removed the candidate chosen by constituencies and “parachuted” in a more Corbyn friendly Momentum hopeful.

Ms Long-bailey has also been accused of exaggerating about her background in her campaign material in an attempt to make herself appear more authentically working class.

She has long claimed her politics were informed by watching her father’s anxiety about losing his job at Salford docks, even though the dock closed when she was two years old, The Sunday Times reported.

A spokesman for Ms Long-bailey said: “Like many others in the North, [she] saw first-hand the devastation created by Thatcher’s brutal economic regime,” but did not deny the claim was technically false.

In a campaign video released last month, she claimed to be “born to the sound of the roar of the Stretford end” of Old Trafford stadium. Manchester

United, who use the stadium, were playing 75 miles away in Wolverhampton on the day she was born.

Ms Long-bailey had long been expected to run for leader when Mr Corbyn stood down and has begun organising her team for the race.

‘I can’t rule it with an iron fist, much as I’d love to. It’s up to councillors and politicians to be accountable’

The shadow business secretary is thought to be running on a joint ticket with her friend Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, who will run for deputy leader.

Over the weekend it emerged she had hired a “Stalinist” to work on her team. Alex Halligan, a Momentum and Unite organiser in the North West of England, also worked on Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign and was once pictured wearing a “goodnight, Trotskyite” badge, The Sunday Times reported.

The badge was a reference to the killing of Leon Trotsky on the orders of Joseph Stalin in 1940.

Winning the backing of Momentum will be key to Ms Long-bailey becoming the next leader, with bookmakers offering odds of 9/4 for her victory.

She is thought to be the natural successor to Mr Corbyn, who is still popular with Momentum members.

The group, which is formally separate from the Labour Party but campaigns on its behalf, was the driving force behind a rise in the party’s membership and its shift to the Left under the so-called “Project Corbyn”.

Moderates have blamed Mr Lansman for Labour’s worst general election defeat in almost 100 years.

Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, told Mr Lansman on election night: “I want Momentum gone. Go back to your student politics and your little Left wing.”

Mr Corbyn’s successor will be elected early next year.

Emily Thornberry and Sir Keir Starmer set out their stall to members in interviews last week. Lisa Nandy is expected to declare her candidacy, while Richard Burgon and Jess Phillips are thought to be considering bids.