"Obama could never have got through this system"

On Sunday 30 May Andrew Marr interviewed Labour MP Diane Abbott.

Please note 'The Andrew Marr Show' must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

Diane Abbott, Labour MP

ANDREW MARR:

Wanted: dynamic visionary with voter appeal reward leading the opposition for the next few years; and then, if it works out, leading the party back to power. Diane Abbott is not one of the bookie's favourites for the job, but she does have very special qualifications: she's different from the three front runners. Welcome Diane Abbott. Is this a kind of quixotic charge at the machine guns: no chance of actually winning, but you're going to kind of make people talk a bit? Or is this something serious?

DIANE ABBOTT:

I wouldn't call it unserious. If you look at the polls, when you ask people who they'd like to see as Labour's Leader, I am second, ahead of Ed Miliband. So the public take the bid very seriously. And in fact I decided to stand in response to people saying that although the four front runners are wonderful and very talented and so on, they really think much the same and people felt it was important there was a broader range of political views involved in the leadership debate.

ANDREW MARR:

So in terms of your political views, why do you think fundamentally Labour lost the election?

DIANE ABBOTT:

Because we got out of touch with our electorate. I think the argument which some of the contenders are making, which is that immigration lost us the election, I think is wrong. I think that voters' concerns about immigration - which I might point out were much more intense in constituencies where there were no immigrants at all - no-one mentioned immigration on the doorsteps of Hackney.

ANDREW MARR:

So is it a racist thing basically or not?

DIANE ABBOTT:

No, no, no, no. I think it's a surrogate for people's concerns about the lack of housing, for people's concerns about job insecurity, for people's concerns about change and just general insecurity. And we as a party need to deal with those underlying insecurities amongst black and white working class people.

ANDREW MARR:

So when you say the party got out of touch with people but it wasn't immigration, what were they getting out of touch about?

DIANE ABBOTT:

Well you know one of the biggest things that was a disillusion for the Labour voters was the Iraq War. We had the biggest march ever against it. Most Labour Party members were against it and people felt the government just wasn't listening.

ANDREW MARR:

And if you became Labour Leader, would you call for British troops to come home from, for instance, Afghanistan now?

DIANE ABBOTT:

I visited Afghanistan last year. I was very impressed with the bravery of our boys out there. But we have to ask ourselves what are we doing in a country where no Western nation has won a war for a century? One of the things I would raise in the leadership debate is what are we doing in Afghanistan? Is it an open-ended commitment?

ANDREW MARR:

Now you have the summer months now, I suppose, to go around in front of Labour Party audiences. One of the problems of course is that in the Labour Party constitution quite a lot of this is done by unions and block votes and so on. Would you like to see as it were an open primary system? If you say that the voters would prefer you to many of the other candidates, would you like to see a much wider range of people involved in this?

DIANE ABBOTT:

I would. One of the problems is I've got to get 33 nominations from MPs to even get on the ballot paper.

ANDREW MARR:

(over) How are you doing so far?

DIANE ABBOTT:

We're on track, but it's tight. But you know that's a system which is geared towards insiders. It's no coincidence that two of the front runners are actually brothers. You know Obama could never have got through this sort of system. We need at the very front end a more open system which allows a wider range of candidates to run.

ANDREW MARR:

Diane Abbott, I'm going to be mean. I'm going to say … You say "on track". How many have you got so far?

DIANE ABBOTT:

That is my secret (Marr laughs) but you will soon know, Andrew.

ANDREW MARR:

And it's not going to be sort of one or two? You're going to do better than …

DIANE ABBOTT:

(over) Oh no, no … no, no, no. But, as I say, it's hard to come in as the underdog when the other candidates had been hoovering up nominations for months.

ANDREW MARR:

Do you think the rule is unfair - that 31 MPs have to sign your papers first - in terms of keeping the field quite narrow at the start of the contest?

DIANE ABBOTT:

As I say, it's geared towards insiders. And the American presidential system provides a much wider range of candidates. We do need to look at the system.

ANDREW MARR:

Why do you think the Labour Party throws up so many people of a similar age, background, educational background and so on? Why is it all 40 something guys from Oxbridge, apart from yourself?

DIANE ABBOTT:

I think it's a phenomenon of the system we now have. And back in the day, in the 70s, we had a much broader range of potential leadership candidates - Barbara Castle (trade unionist), Dick Crossman (an academic). It's part of the legacy of New Labour and actually we need to get beyond that.

ANDREW MARR:

Alright. Do you think that if David Miliband - the favourite - gets it, Labour is just going to look too much like the rest?

DIANE ABBOTT:

I think if we have a leadership contest through the summer …

ANDREW MARR:

Or Ed Miliband, for that matter.

DIANE ABBOTT:

Or Ed, yes. I think if we have a leadership contest through the summer in which everybody in it is male and white and saying exactly the same thing, that won't do justice to Labour's record on diversity.

ANDREW MARR:

Alright Diane Abbott, we now know, we certainly know that's not going to happen. Thank you very much indeed for joining me this morning.

INTERVIEW ENDS

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