David Cunliffe and the future of the Labour Party

David Cunliffe met with the press today after Saturday’s disappointing election result for The Labour Party. “We are all deeply concerned by the result of our party vote. I want to be clear that I, as leader, am responsible for that result” Cunliffe said. Although he called the results “deeply disappointing” Cunliffe said: “The voters are always right”.
He felt that Labour needed to make improvements and take action: “We don’t need months to get feedback from members of the public, we've had a lot over the past 48 hours”.

Cunliffe was criticized by some members of the press for being the sole speaker today, despite being joined by David Parker and several new Labour MPs elected to strengthen Labour’s Maori caucus. Many media questions were also highly critical of Cunliffe's decision not to stand down as Labour leader at this time. He defended this decision saying that it was his intention to give the Labour party stability. He expressed the desire to “get on and fix the problems, quickly”.

Cunliffe said that Labour’s leadership would be decided via the caucus process and sponsored review.

A press statement is expected to be made once the results of that process are known.

ENDS

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