I’m running for Labour deputy leader. We’re failing voters in so many ways – I think I can fix that | Bell Ribeiro-Addy

Whether it’s on Gaza or the state of public services, people feel as if they are not being listened to. That has to change

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Sometimes in politics you have to do the right thing, even if you do not expect success. I am standing to be deputy leader of the Labour party because it is the right thing to do. I’m proud of our party’s traditions, but I fear that we’ve lost our way. We urgently need to speak up for members, for working people and for the communities that our party was founded to represent.

Over recent years, the voice of the Labour left has been diminished. Many dedicated members and representatives have found themselves sidelined, suspended or even expelled. And both the timetable and the nomination threshold of this deputy leadership contest, with the required number of supporting MPs for each candidate doubled to 80 in 2021 by the current leadership, appear set to prevent leftwing candidates from even standing. That is deeply concerning, not because it is about one faction or another, but because it denies our members the open and democratic debate that makes our party strong.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill