Neil Kinnock gave an impassioned plea to ‘dispirited’ Labour Party members in Morden last night.
The former Labour leader urged members to stay and help build a better party at an event where long-serving council members were honoured for their services to Merton, on Monday, December 12.
His speech comes at the end of a year that has seen the party belaboured with infighting and a heated leadership race.
Lord Kinnock spoke out to members who are ‘so dispirited and so disillusioned that they want to walk away from the Labour Party’.
“Please don’t do that,” he urged. “Because the only forces you will delight and strengthen by leaving Labour are the very forces that made you want to leave.
“Do not give them that satisfaction. Don’t quit.”
Lord Kinnock spoke of his hope that the Labour Party would be re-invigorated and launch a strong and united challenge against the Conservatives from the grass roots.
“This is our party and we re not giving it to anybody,” he said.
“Only by winning power at local and national level can we deliver for working people and address grievances.”
The speech by the prominent Labour figure was well received by the 180 Labour Party members and supporters in attendance.
Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh described it as a moving speech by ‘one of the great orators in politics’.
“The labour party has had a hard year but our cause has been universal and unending,” she said.
