Between 1997 and 2005 Labour held three of the six parliamentary seats in Gloucestershire. That's right, half of the county's seats. 

We held the Forest of Dean and right up to 2010 we also held Gloucester and Stroud. Through the late nineties and early part of this century we also had a really strong local government base and led some of the districts in the county and even led the County Council for a period of time.

Like many parts of the south, the county is now totally Tory blue. To win back these marginal seats Labour will need a leader with an innate ability to connect with middle England. All of the polls of public opinion in national newspapers have suggested that Andy Burnham is best placed as that person. We ignore this at our peril.

He has core Labour beliefs but he is able to articulate himself to a marginal seat audience. We've seen it in action on his visits to Gloucester over the years. As Health Secretary he was as comfortable talking to cleaning staff at the Gloucestershire Royal as he was talking to the chief executive. And crucially, from a marginal seat perspective, he wasn't afraid to take on chief executives when people in the Labour Party demonstrated that they were making bad decisions. In much the same way that he was willing to take on the establishment over Hillsborough when they needed to be challenged.

But should it matter if a candidate to be leader of the party is popular with the public? Does winning for winning's sake matter? Well the answer to that is it doesn't. But it was never about winning for the sake of it. Look at what victory in marginals did for ordinary working people. None of our national achievements would have been possible without victory in the marginals. That's what delivered the majority which made it possible to introduce a minimum wage, to legislate for sexual and gender equality, to reduce waiting times in hospitals and ensure you have a right to be represented by your trade union.

Locally, in Gloucestershire we were able to achieve things the Tories would never have dreamt of in all of their many years in the political ascendency. We oversaw the reconstruction of hospitals, the rebuilding of FE colleges for young people who were never destined for university. We rebuilt schools that were crumbling and put bobbies on the beat in local wards. Reducing crime, child and pensioner poverty, reducing waiting lists and waiting times for local operations.

This Labour project, our collective project, would be nothing without victory in our marginal seats. To ignore the polling that says we have a leader in waiting that the public are ready to turn to would be a license to let the Tories totally undo the remnants of good work still in place from our 13 years in office.

Andy addressed an event for members and supporters in Gloucester yesterday. We believe we have in Andy someone who can give us a real chance to win back marginal seats in 2020. So when you cast your vote, please remember this, victory in safe seats will not change our country in 2020. Victory in marginals just might, with Andy Burnham.

Parmjit Dhanda, former MP for Gloucester

Councillor Kate Haigh, Leader of the Labour Group, Gloucester