My hair-raising deputy leadership race

Also this week: A ticking off from Mum, and all aboard the Man City bus

I was at a parent’s evening in Manchester when I heard I’d won enough nominations to enter the Labour deputy leadership election. I was delighted, of course, but by the time we hit the threshold of 80 Labour MPs I realised very quickly that I needed to build a website, assemble a campaign team, register a company, write statements and open a new bank account. It’s like setting up a start-up overnight, with the added pressure of phoning supporters, waverers and potential backers at all hours of the day and night. Contests like this quickly build their own momentum. It’s exhilarating, but we’re a team of volunteers who are up against an organised machine.

It was a relief to board the Man City supporters’ bus to the Etihad Stadium and be greeted by an army of well-wishers. Watching City beat United convincingly in the Manchester derby was a huge boost. It’s the only time I get to cheer loudly when the Blues beat the Reds.

Man power?

Returning to parliament, it was invigorating to see the MPs who nominated me. There was some clapping and cheering as I arrived, which should have made me smile. In fact, it just reminded me that I’ve got a responsibility to get this right. That feeling intensified when a poll was published the same evening that showed we had a narrow lead among party members.

This is a contest between two strong women who have been in parliament for a combined total of 28 years. So it infuriates me to read we are proxies for two men. I told the Manchester Evening News I was more alpha male than most men, which earned a rebuke from my mother and an instruction never to use that line again. “You’re much nicer than that,” she said. Thank you, Mum.

The power of listening

I don’t think there’s any doubt the party needs a genuine contest. Many are frustrated by the unforced errors Labour has made since the election. I’m not going to talk down the government. The legislative programme I helped to push through as leader of the House includes the biggest extension of workers’ rights in a generation, returning the railways to public ownership, and millions more appointments and record investment in the NHS. But we have become defined by our mistakes, including a misguided attempt to reform welfare in a way that would have punished sick and disabled people. These mistakes could have been avoided if the government had listened to its MPs, councillors, members and union colleagues. Meaningful consultation is a sign of strength, not weakness. And no one who knows me well would claim I’m shy about telling it like it is. I wantto do that on behalf of members, who deserve an independent voice at the top of the party.

Spirit of the radio

To New Broadcasting House, for my first and (at the time of writing) only broadcast interview with Nick Robinson. Any politician who claims they are anything other than nervous when they sit down with someone like Nick is either an egomaniac or a liar. I was keen for members to understand more about who I am and what drives me. I was born and raised in the north of England at a time when the impact of deindustrialisation, accelerated by Thatcherism, had destroyed jobs and families. There was a feeling of hopelessness, which, tragically, I see in the country once again after 14 years of Tory government. Our response to that will define us as a government. Practical policies are not enough without a clear story to tell that distinguishes us from our rivals on the left as well as the right.

The rocky road to Wales

A six-hour round trip by train to Caerphilly on Thursday, to campaign in a difficult Senedd by-election that exemplifies the electoral challenge we face. Yes, Nigel Farage and the populist right are on the rise in South Wales, but Labour is at a greater risk of losing support to Plaid Cymru. We need to have the confidence to champion Labour values. That’s one reason I’ve called for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted. As Harold Wilson said, Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing.

I made it back to Manchester just in time for City’s game against Napoli. But it was also the first big night of Constituency Labour Party meetings at which Labour members nominate their preferred deputy leadership candidate, which meant there were many furtive glances at my phone. We have picked up support in areas where we hardly organised at all, and others where the local MP didn’t nominate me, such as Rochdale, Bristol South and Wycombe. It is humbling, because I think I’ve tapped in to a widespread feeling among members that we need a course-correction to win the next election, not on the airwaves but in a conversation in the Labour family about how we can do better.

Lucy Powell is Labour MP for Manchester Central

[Further reading: Liz Truss interview: the former PM is still at war with the deep state]