Claire Hanna MP has confirmed that she has put her name forward to be the next leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
When Colum Eastwood MP announced he was quitting as leader, he endorsed Hanna as the party’s next leader.
The SDLP’s leader in Stormont, Matthew O’Toole MLA, also endorsed her to be leader. He is the only other realistic candidate for leader, as only their group of MLAs and MPs are eligible.
In a statement, she acknowledged that recent election results have been “challenging” for the SDLP.
“We have to listen more, organise better, and offer a fresh, compelling message of optimism and clarity of purpose,” she said.
The SDLP held their two Westminster seats in the general election earlier this year, but in the 2022 Assembly election, they lost four MLAs.
Hanna’s statement in full
“Politics should be about finding practical solutions to the challenges faced by all our communities, that’s what motivates me every day. But people are losing faith that Stormont and politics more generally will deliver for them. They live with failing public services and a politics driven by division, dysfunction and pettiness.
This period has also been challenging for our party. The SDLP must have the humility to recognise that we have to work harder to resonate with people and earn future electoral success.
We have to listen more, organise better, and offer a fresh, compelling message of optimism and clarity of purpose.
We must more actively engage voters, including those who didn’t grow up in the nationalist tradition, who share our social democratic and anti-sectarian principles, many of whom are curious about the potential of a reconciled new Ireland.
We need to offer and campaign with a dual mission of making life better in the present, while building for a new Ireland, explaining why we believe constitutional change will improve people’s lives and opportunities.
We have to make our values real for people and sell them relentlessly door to door. We need to recognise that too many towns and neighbourhoods don’t see or feel SDLP’s effort locally.
We have a real opportunity to grow our electoral reach. No other party is fundamentally commited to tackling all three of the major divisions inequality, sectarianism & partition – limiting our region’s potential. No other party is driving accountability in Stormont, standing up for Northern Ireland in Westminster and actively shaping constitutional change.
If I am selected by members to be SDLP leader, I’ll work determinedly with elected representatives, activists and new members we need to go out and recruit, to make SDLP values relevant for the modern political landscape, grow our vote and pursue our goal of the ending the divisions that have held people back for too long.”
