Labour's shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth arriving at BBC Broadcasting House in central London to appear on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show.
Senior Labour officials are set to head stateside this week, and the delegation will be present to see Kamala Harris formally accept the Democrat nomination to run for president. The group, being led by Jon Ashworth, is set to share campaign tips with the party.
Labour recorded a storming victory at the 2024 General Election, comprehensively beating the incumbent Conservative government and securing a large majority. Clinical performances in key constituencies helped the centre-left party win their first election in almost 20 years.
The Tories, reduced to the opposition benches, kept little over 120 seats blue – almost 300 behind Labour’s total of 412. Despite the threat of seeing the vote split by Independent candidates and those more vocal about the war in Palestine, the campaign was a huge success.
However, not everyone wearing a red rosette when the ballot boxes opened managed to hold on to their seats. Jon Ashworth, who has represented Leicester South for the last 13 years, was defeated by Shockat Adam – who ran on a pro-Gaza platform.
Despite this setback, Mr. Ashworth has been able to keep himself within Keir Starmer’s inner circle. He now leads the PM’s ‘Labour Together’ think-tank, and retains close ties to the party leadership. Despite losing his MP status, Ashworth is still seen as an influential figure.
When Kamala Harris accepts the nomination next week, Team Labour will meet with their politically-aligned American colleagues, and Democrat strategists are expected to discuss policy and tactics ahead of a generation-defining election in November.
As per The Mirror, items on the agenda will include immigration – which has become the hot-button issue on both sides of the pound recently – and the green agenda. Labour are hoping to emulate the current US government, in pushing ahead with more clean energy.
The latest polls show Harris edging-out Donald Trump – but the former president remains a force to be reckoned with in the US. Even at this point, the results are forecast to balance on a knife-edge. Ashworth and his team will have to work hard to identify where marginal gains can be made.
