The sister of the murdered MP Jo Cox has said Labour needs more “real people” in parliament to reconnect to its former voters, as she vowed to “burst the Westminster bubble” if she wins the Batley and Spen byelection.
Kim Leadbeater is aiming to follow in her late sister’s footsteps by becoming Labour MP for the West Yorkshire constituency when the contest is held in July.
The campaigner and personal trainer, 45, said there was a “big disconnect between the Westminster bubble and communities like this” partly because there were too few MPs with “life experience, not just experience in politics”.
“I would try and go into politics to burst the Westminster bubble and try create something a little bit different in politics by speaking for real people in the real world,” she said.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, will be desperate to quieten his critics by retaining a seat the party has held since 1997. Labour holds Batley and Spen with a…
