Dear Meg, Please Nominate John

John and I have just sent this missive to our local MP, Meg Hillier ...

Dear Meg

We are writing to you to urge you to nominate John McDonnell for Labour Party leader.

As we are sure you know, John has a long record of service to the Labour movement and the Labour party.

Where John has found himself at odds with Labour's leadership, it is usually on issues where the public support the stance taken by John rather than by the party leadership eg. opposing privatisation of public services, the Iraq war, or the third runway at Heathrow airport. We feel strongly that Labour can regain its lost support by reversing unpopular policies such as these, and could best do so under John's leadership.

We both work on London Underground, and have seen many of our workmates, often lifelong Labour voters, stop voting Labour because of issues like these and because of the disastrous Public-Private Partnership on London Underground.

Even if you do not intend to vote for John, we still urge you to nominate him, in order to ensure that he gets onto the ballot paper. If Labour is to win back its lost support, it is essential that the leadership election is a genuine debate about policies, not a contest between personalities. Many people perceive Labour to have moved away from its working-class roots and to be out-of-touch with ordinary people. Going by the candidates declared so far, if John is not on the ballot paper, then every candidate will be an Oxbridge graduate, and most will have a background as a special adviser!

Thank you.

Janine Booth & John Leach