Labour leadership hopeful compares herself to Gillian Duffy

Labour candidate Diane Abbott has compared herself to Rochdale grandmother Gillian Duffy as she bids to become Labour leader.

Ms Abbott said: “Mrs Duffy of Rochdale and I have this much in common: we are not afraid to speak our mind, we love our party and we want it back.”

Mrs Duffy shot to fame in the week before the General Election when Gordon Brown, former prime minister, was overheard calling her ‘a bigoted woman’ on a hidden microphone still switched on as he left Rochdale in a car. 

She had questioned the amount of eastern European workers in the town.

In addition, Peter Hain, the former Secretary for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales, today claimed that the incident involving Gillian Duffy was the turning point of Labour’s electoral campaign:

He told The Spectator: “It had a palpable effect. I think we were just beginning to get a bit of traction - not necessarily to win but possibly to be the biggest party in the election - and that was a real hammer blow, and everybody knew it.

“I think people had started, not necessarily to warm to Gordon but to recognise him for what he is.”

It came up just at a time when we were beginning to turn the tide, as I say, not to go storming to victory but to be the biggest party, in which case things could have been very different.”