Liz Kendall has confessed to having a substantial “cheesy” side after being filmed giving a big wink to a TV crew.
The shadow health minister and Labour leadership contender captured the attention of social media users after the footage, originally shot by ITV News, was put on loop to the tune of George Michael’s Careless Whisper and circulated on Twitter.
Ms Kendall, seen as the Blairite outsider in a race now led by Jeremy Corbyn, admitted that she had “a long way to go” in the contest. She said: “Without doubt, I am somewhat behind but you never stop fighting.”
She said that she was determined to enjoy the last fortnight before voting closed. The wink, she said, embodied that spirit. “That’s me all over: cheesy. I was having fun. There’s no point in doing this if this isn’t something you love and enjoy. Politics shouldn’t be something you have to slog through.”
The Leicester West MP, who has faced accusations from rival camps that she is a “closet Tory”, revealed that she had recently decided to start taking on Twitter trolls. “One day I just thought, oh shut up, you deserve one back,” she said. “That’s just my personality. I thought: you never deal with bullies by remaining silent. I don’t ever want anyone in our party to be worried about what they say and what they think.”
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Ms Kendall has struggled to gain traction in a race that has become swept up in the story of the rise of Mr Corbyn, a left-winger. Asked what was next for her supporters on the Blairite wing of the Labour party, she said that they would have to do some “serious thinking”.
In an admission that centrists had struggled to be taken seriously in the contest, she said: “Without doubt, there is a challenge for those of us on what I’d call the moderate, progressive part of the Labour party to move us on from the Blair/Brown years and to be the genuine modernisers again.
“I don’t think that we did anything near enough thinking over the last five years about how we as a party remain relevant in the 21st century.”