Gisela Stuart MPWorking hard for Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne and Quinton

Letter to The Guardian, 31 July 2009 // August 3rd, 2009 // Speeches, Articles and Interviews

Dear Editor

Things are tough now. Labour has been in government for 12 years and people ask what else we can do for them. But things were tough 14 years ago when I was selected in a marginal seat in the Midlands which had never been Labour before. On election night it was constituencies like Edgbaston which heralded a Labour government. Let’s make no mistake, the next general election, like any other, will be won and lost in traditional marginal seats (People are crying out for big change, 29 July). It will be MPs like me who put up the fight and argue the case for a Labour government that believes in equality and a government that deals with a worldwide recession in a responsible manner. Because only if we win in these marginal seats will there continue to be a government that speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Those of us who were elected in 1997 and re-elected in 2001 and 2005 will be ones who have to put up the fight to ensure there is another Labour government. Of course individual and family circumstances change, but sitting Labour MPs who walk away before the next general election without good reason, just because it’s getting tough, should remember that this doesn’t help anybody; least of all those who stayed with us for three general elections. And I doubt that when they were anxious to be selected they told their local party they’d be off if the weather got choppy.

Yours sincerely

Gisela Stuart MP

Labour - Birmingham Edgbaston

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