Voting has opened in Labour’s deputy leadership election as members decide who will fill the vacancy left by Angela Rayner. The two candidates – Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson – have been battling it out over the past few weeks for the backing of constituency Labour parties, party grandees and the unions. This has been painted by some in Labour as proxy war between the party’s soft left and loyalist wings and, more widely, as a battle for the soul of the Labour party.
Powell is currently out front and looks likely to emerge victorious. She has won the backing of 269 CLPs versus Phillipson’s 165 and has polled consistently highly with members (the most recent polling of members put Powell on 35 per cent to Phillipson’s 28 per cent). Phillipson’s performance can in some ways be blamed on her being – perhaps reluctantly – the government’s chosen candidate. Members are unhappy with the direction the Labour leadership has been taking, and some clearly see this race is an opportunity to make their dissatisfaction known. Yet, though the result may already feel like a forgone conclusion, Phillipson is not going down without a fight.
One crucial battleground between the two candidates is their proximity to the government. Powell was, until early September, the Leader of the House of Commons. In this role, she was the main link between MPs and the government (during tricky moments such as the welfare rebellion) and is thought of quite highly among her colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party. But, she was sacked by Starmer at the last reshuffle.
To some, this makes Powell a martyr of Starmer’s Labour, and therefore the perfect candidate to hold the leadership to account. To others, the fact she was sacked less than a month ago means Powell has not gained enough distance from the mistakes of the party’s top brass. But she is clear that it is her sitting outside of the cabinet, away from the trappings of a government job, which will give her the freedom to stand up for members. A spokesperson for her campaign told the New Statesman, “what Lucy has heard from members in London and up and down the country is that they’re worried about Labour losing support from both sides.”
But Powell also expects to have some sway within the cabinet. Speaking to the New Statesman this week, the Manchester Central MP said that, following a recent conversation with the prime minister, she will be in “political cabinet”, meaning she will be able to attend cabinet meetings when civil servants are not present. “I’ll be at the top of the party; I’ll be part of lots of formal arrangements, working across government and reconnecting with our movement,” she said.
Of Powell’s claim to be attending political cabinet, a spokesperson for Phillipson said: “This fundamentally misrepresents what Lucy will be able to do. She won’t be at cabinet, and for every important decision she will be out of the room.” The spokesperson pointed to John Prescott, Harriet Harman and Rayner – all former deputy leaders whom Phillipson has said she is keen to emulate. “[They] were all deputy leaders with clout in the cabinet and in the room for major policy decisions,” they said. “[Powell] knows that; she knows it’s her weakness, and now she’s trying to have it both ways.” The spokesperson even claimed that Powell would be “Momentum’s voice in government”.
But the campaign is starting to get nasty. Some of Powell’s critics have circulated briefings claiming that, due to alleged previous behaviour while leader of the house, she would never be allowed back into cabinet. A Labour source told the New Statesman: “Lucy was sacked from cabinet because she couldn’t be trusted not to brief or leak. She fundamentally lost the trust of colleagues. The idea that she would be welcomed back, or wouldn’t have her access restricted, is laughable.”
Those close to Powell see this differently. To them, it is a baseless accusation that reflects the desperation of Phillipson’s campaign, which – considering its standing in the polls – looks unlikely to succeed. A spokesperson for Powell’s campaign said: “The deputy leadership of the Labour Party is directly elected by members for a reason. It rightly isn’t a position appointed by the leader or cabinet. It’s a party role, not a government one – and neither candidate will be the deputy prime minister.”
They added that “Lucy has been running a positive campaign”, and said the choice eventually made by the membership must be “respected”. The spokesperson also said that the role the next deputy leader will play in helping the party to reconnect with voters “isn’t up to the supporters of one candidate or another”. They insisted that any suggestion as to why Powell was sacked from cabinet is “speculation”: Starmer himself, they said, could not give Powell a reason when he rang to let her know she had been reshuffled.
A position within the government is not the only line of difference team Phillipson have been clear to draw with team Powell. While Powell has won big across the country, winning far more CLP nominations than Phillipson across several regions of the UK, Phillipson has done well in London. Powell won 19 of London’s 75 constituencies (not all of which submitted a nomination), while Phillipson won 29. “Bridget is winning support in every region and nation from right across the Labour movement,” a spokesperson for Phillipson said, “because members understand the stakes of this election are so high.”
These stakes – according to Phillipson – are a united Labour Party under her deputy leadership, or disunity with Powell. Phillipson has been criticised for drawing this comparison, but it is clearly intended as an attack line to fend off characterisations of this race as a proxy war between Starmerite orthodoxy and progressive members. “We need a united Labour Party to face down Farage and deliver the progressive policies which will drive down child poverty,” the spokesperson said. “A divided Labour Party will send us back to the opposition benches and have Farage laughing all the way to No 10”. Privately, Phillipson’s team has relished her big wins in London. They point out that London CLPs tend to have a larger membership and, alongside achieving the most affiliate and union nominations, shows the Education Secretary’s broad base of support across the party.
Powell’s team don’t see the former Commons Leader’s lack of support in London as a source of consternation. That she secured 19 CLP nominations in the first place is seen as a coup in itself, owing to the robust and well-organised machinery of Labour First and Labour to Win in the capital. “London is a really important heartland for Labour,” a spokesperson for Powell’s campaign said, “and Lucy has been thrilled to win the support of 19 CLPs, representing a significant chunk of our membership.” They added: “It’s important to ensure that voices from all sections – and geographies – of our party are heard.” Like Phillipson, Powell’s team are keen to assert her importance in taking on the threat of Reform as deputy leader. “What Lucy has heard from members in London and up and down the country is that they’re worried about Labour losing support from all sides,” the spokesperson said. “We can’t tack one way or the other, trying to out Reform Reform. We’ve got to take back the political megaphone and rebuild our electoral coalition, telling a stronger story about what Labour will do.”
This has been an unexpected – and, in more recent weeks, at times vicious – campaign. While neither candidate has offered much that is different or radical in policy terms, the choice between them is clear.
With Phillipson, members are being presented with a rising star in government who, backed by the party machinery, has promised to represent members from the cabinet table. In Powell, members could elect a deputy leader with a knowledge of government and how it operates, but who sits outside its day-to-day operation and is sufficiently distanced to criticise the party leadership freely. If elected, Powell’s position – unlike Phillipson’s – will have been decided by members in its entirety. Voting has only just begun, and the result is still to play for.
[Further reading: Bridget Phillipson: “I’ve had to fight tooth and nail”]
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