Liz Kendall

Kendall before a 2015 Labour Party leadership election meeting in Bristol

On 10 May 2015, Kendall announced that she was standing as a successor to Ed Miliband for the Labour Party's leadership following its defeat in the general election a few days earlier.[12][13] Kendall was regarded by many in the media as the Blairite candidate,[12][13][14] though Kendall stated she would like to be known as the "modernising candidate".[15] In mid-June, Kendall secured the 35 nominations needed for a place in the leadership ballot.

Her leadership bid was supported by Shadow Cabinet colleagues Ivan Lewis,[16] Chuka Umunna,[17] Tristram Hunt,[18] Emma Reynolds and Gloria De Piero.[19] Senior Labour politicians supporting her included Alan Milburn,[20] Alistair Darling,[21] John Hutton[22] and John Reid.[23]

On 19 May 2015, Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins was appointed as her leadership election campaign manager. Her campaign director was Morgan McSweeney, head of the LGA Labour Group. Her director of strategic communications was Mark Ferguson, former editor of LabourList.[24] Other members of her campaign team included Hopi Sen, Margaret McDonagh and Tony Blair's former press spokesman Matthew Doyle.[25] She also had the support of the Blue Labour Group within the Labour Party including figures such as Maurice Glasman and Rowenna Davis.

In June 2015, Kendall's leadership bid received praise from The Sun, who said that she is the "only prayer they [the Labour Party] have". The Sun also praised her for saying "the country comes first" in response to Andy Burnham who said "the Labour Party always comes first" in the Newsnight Labour leadership hustings.[26] Commentators from across the political spectrum said that Kendall was the leadership candidate the Conservatives would "fear the most".[27][28][29] This claim was even re-stated by some Conservative politicians including George Osborne, Boris Johnson, Ruth Davidson, Anna Soubry and Philip Davies.[30][31][32][33]

Kendall finished 4th in the election, obtaining 4.5% (18,857) of the vote.[34]

Kendall resigned from the Shadow Cabinet following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in September 2015.[35] She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.[36] One year later James Chapman, former Director of Communications at HM Treasury under George Osborne, said, "We really need Liz Kendall to be the leader of [a] new centre party."[37] Chapman had already tweeted his proposals for a new centrist political party opposed to Brexit, 'The Democrats'.[38] After stepping down from frontline politics, Kendall was a regular guest on BBC current affairs programme This Week until its cancellation in July 2019.

Kendall has argued that Labour should be "genuinely as passionate about wealth creation as we are about wealth redistribution" and her party should not just understand business but be "the champion of people who take a risk, create something and make a success of it". Kendall has also said that there is "nothing progressive about racking up debts for the next generation" and it is wrong to spend more on debt interest repayments than on education. Kendall has given support to George Osborne's plan to enshrine in law an overall budget surplus during "normal times" but has called for more detail on the proposals. Kendall has also said that the last Labour government was wrong to run a deficit before the financial crash but that it did not cause the crash.

Kendall has also committed herself to the living wage and said the Low Pay Commission's remit should be extended to encourage more firms to pay it[39] and has said she would end the exploitation of care workers by preventing firms from docking the cost of uniform and travel time from their wages. She has also come out in support of worker representation on company boards as part of her plans for economic reform. After the Budget, Kendall commissioned her supporter, the former minister Margaret Hodge, to undertake a review into the £100bn tax reliefs that firms are entitled to.[39]

Kendall is a pro-European and has spoken in favour of reforming the European Union. She supported an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU,[15] and wanted the Labour Party to play a leading role in a cross-party Yes to Europe campaign. Kendall also backed the NATO target to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence.[15] She is in favour of renewing Britain's Trident nuclear submarines.[40] Kendall supports a two-state solution, but she abstained on a motion recognising the State of Palestine, instead favouring the continuation of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.[41] She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.[42]

Kendall has spoken about education as a way of tackling inequality. She has spoken in support of expanding the academies programme and keeping the free schools initiative saying that focus should be on the quality of education rather than structures and that investment in the early years should be a priority over cutting university tuition fees.[39][43] Kendall also said that more effort was needed in the education system to raise aspiration for the 'white working class young'.[44] Kendall has also said that as Prime Minister, she would order a review of National Lottery Funding to free up funds for early years services.[45]

Kendall on a People's march for the NHS in 2014

Kendall has advocated increased patient choice in the NHS,[46] arguing "there will remain a role for the private and voluntary sectors where they can add extra capacity to the NHS or challenges to the system" and with healthcare providers "what matters is what works".[12][13]

Kendall supported the £23,000 benefit cap.[47]

Kendall has given some support to David Cameron's proposal that the right of EU migrants to claim tax credits and benefits should be withdrawn, or delayed for a number of years.[48] She supports the current points-based immigration system and backed tough rules on abuse of the immigration system but has pledged not to try and "out-UKIP UKIP" and spoke of the benefits of immigration in her own constituency.[49]

Kendall has supported "radical devolution" to England to deal with the West Lothian Question and appointed Tristram Hunt to look at what powers ought to be devolved to England. In July 2015, Kendall came out in favour of English Votes for English Laws. Her leadership rivals favoured the formation of a constitutional convention to consider the issue.[50][51] Kendall has also said that Labour must oppose the 'tyranny of the bureaucratic state' but must also share power at every level so that powers are devolved to communities and individuals too.[52]

Kendall has come out in support of Labour's links with the trade union movement but has said that both the trade unions and the Labour Party have to change. Kendall said that if she became Prime Minister, she would reverse any changes to trade union and employment rights made by the previous Conservative government.[53] Kendall has also criticised Len McCluskey for threatening to withdraw funding from the Labour Party were his choice of candidate not to be elected.[53]

Kendall is a supporter of LGBT rights and voted for gay marriage in 2013. Kendall has said that under her leadership, the Labour Party would work with other centre-left parties to end the criminalisation of homosexuality across the world and spoken in favour of Michael Cashman becoming the UK's special envoy on LGBTI issues.[54]