Gilmore to stand for Labour Leadership
Issued : Tuesday 28 August, 2007
Statement by Eamon Gilmore TD
Leader of the Labour Party, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade
I will be a candidate for election as Leader of the Labour Party. Senator Dominic Hannigan will chair my Campaign Committee.
Over the coming weeks I will be asking every individual member of the Party, for a mandate to lead the Renewal of Labour in Ireland.
To renew Labour, we need to
(1) Reaffirm and re-assert the core values of Labour as the most relevant guiding principles for our modern times, and to have confidence in our principles.
(2) Relate Labour’s values to the realities of modern life.
(3) Renew and re-vitalise the Party’s organisation, especially at local and constituency levels.
(4) Mobilise and resource the immense talents of all our elected representatives and candidates
(5) Deepen the party’s appeal and participation by encouraging more members to actively campaign and by encouraging more of our voters to become members.
The project which I propose, is not confined to the Party itself. Our country needs new and relevant politics, based on ideas and substance, rather than just image and spin. The challenges of our times, and of the new Ireland, call for new forms of accessible political expression. On issues ranging from climate change to the modernisation of public services and the provision of local amenities, people all over this country want a new relevant politics, creating an active citizenship in a real republic.
Labour is better placed than most to respond to this need. Because only Labour’s politics integrate the economic, and the social and the environmental. Campaigning and organising independently, Labour can and should be the party of and for the new Ireland.
This challenge for Labour requires us to think not just from election to election, but beyond, and towards structural and institutional reform. In the short to medium term, we need a strategy which develops the Party through two general elections.
At a practical level we should aim at winning close to 30 seats at the next general election; and to build an active campaigning organisation in every constituency, which is capable of winning a seat in every constituency within 2 elections. Labour should break free of, and reject the “half party” limit which others impose on us - and which, sometimes, we inflict on ourselves. Labour must reach out and be relevant in all parts of our country, and every strand of society, while always remaining true to our core social democratic values of equality and justice.
To achieve this, I intend to provide an open style of leadership, which consults and involves, which mobilises all our party’s talents and energies, especially those of our elected representatives and of our candidates – and which leads our party in dialogue with our electorate and support base and with the wider public.
I will, over the coming weeks, be amplifying these themes and ideas, seeking support for election as Leader and engaging with the party membership on the best ways to renew confidence in our values and to build and renew the party itself.
