Labour Animal Welfare Society is pleased to share statements from candidates for Deputy Leader. As in previous leadership contests, we invite all candidates to set out their priorities for animals and animal welfare. The statements are published in alphabetical order. LAWS will not endorse or nominate a candidate in this process, although as a Socialist Society affiliate we are entitled to make a nomination. Our aim is to inform members and supporters and to keep animal welfare on the agenda.
Candidate statements
Bridget Phillipson
Animal welfare is important to me and I pay tribute to the Labour Animal Welfare Society’s campaigns over many years. Avoidable suffering violates animals’ dignity, and ours.
As an MP for a semi-rural seat, I know how frustrated producers become when they are undercut by unscrupulous firms.
And as Education Secretary, I oversaw the introduction of the new T-level in Animal Care and Management. My Parliamentary record includes raising the badger cull (an issue that I have worked closely with local campaigners on), shock collars, snare hunting, and wild animals in circuses.
Those campaigns, and the closing of the Hunting Act’s loopholes, are more important than ever. Reform promises to cut “thousands of laws” – including animal welfare standards once set by the EU. I have taken on Reform and won, and I believe we have a moral duty to publicly expose their real agenda.
Thanks to LAWS, Labour went into the 1997 election campaigning on the “New Life for Animals” document. Your campaigning efforts were critical to achieving the ban on fur farming, the Hunting Act, and the Animal Welfare Act. Ahead of the publication of the animal welfare strategy, I want this Labour government to at least match the bravery and determination of the last.
I am very glad that LAWS is now constituted as a Socialist Society. If I am elected as Deputy Leader, I want to work closely with the affiliated organisations and my door will always be open to LAWS. Specifically, I want to work with you to make sure that Labour communicates its policies on animal welfare effectively ahead of the next election.
I hope to win your support.
Bridget Phillipson
Lucy Powell
I’ll be a voice for the progressive change and hope that Labour has always delivered when we’re at our best. The beating heart of the Party working together with the head of a Labour government. I will champion our members, socialist societies and elected representatives, creating a bridge between our movement and our leadership.
For over thirty years, Labour Animal Welfare Society has successfully campaigned to improve animal welfare rights in this country. Working closely with the Labour Party and our MPs, LAWS have played an important role in the development of some of the greatest achievements under the last Labour Government, including the banning of hunting with dogs, banning of fur farming, and the introduction of the Animal Welfare Act.
As the Government work on meeting its manifesto commitments to ban trail hunting and the import of hunting trophies, as well as banning puppy smuggling and phasing out animal testing, we must continue to listen to LAWS and others to ensure the measures are effectively implemented. I know that when we listen to the voices of those in our movement, we can achieve great things.
I’m proud to have served as Leader of the House of Commons in charge of transformative legislation: the biggest change in employment rights in a generation, putting our railways back in public hands, investing in GB Energy to make Britain a clean energy superpower, ending water bosses’ bonuses to name but a few. These are just a few examples, but we have so much more to do; we were elected on a mandate of change with a manifesto filled with excellent policies. I know what it takes to ensure that our future legislation delivers on this.
This is real change that Labour members can be proud of, change that will transform the country. Change that we need to tell a better story about. But people haven’t heard enough about these achievements and others – with many overshadowed by other mistakes. We’ve got to turn this around because the stakes are too high; our communities need this Labour government to succeed.
That starts with us listening and responding to what we have heard. When we include more voices and experiences, we make better decisions which hold true to our values. As Deputy Leader, I will bring these voices to the heart of our party and our government. I won’t snipe from the sidelines, but I will speak truth to power. And I’m not afraid to have difficult conversations when we need to change course.
This is how I have always done politics and it is why Ed Miliband, Lisa Nandy, Andy Burnham and so many others in our movement are backing me – I hope that you will too.
Lucy Powell
