In case you blinked you might have neglected it. Labour has a brand new deputy chief, Lucy Powell, who received the competition to exchange Angela Rayner.
The placement of deputy comes right down to a vote of birthday party individuals and affiliated supporters, and this contest was once noticed as a possibility to present Keir Starmer’s management the thumbs up or thumbs down.
Participants have long gone for the latter, settling on Powell over Schooling Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who was once the Quantity 10 favorite for the function. In spite of everything, Powell received 54% of the votes to Phillipson’s 46%.
Bridget Phillipson, the training secretary, was once No. 10’s select for deputy chief however was once surpassed in votes by means of Lucy Powell.
Mark Thomas/Alamy
Phillipson is fashionable within the birthday party, and looks to have confronted down grumbles from non-public faculties about Labour’s VAT reforms. However polling and birthday party temper had steered Powell would win, despite the fact that Starmer had sacked her from his cupboard in September. That is evidence each that politics is an unpredictable experience and that Labour’s inside politics isn’t lately happy.
And even though this was once the primary time since 2007 that Labour has held a competition for deputy chief whilst in place of job, turnout was once simply 16.6%.
Who’s Lucy Powell?
Powell is not any stranger to Labour management groups and naturally handiest very not too long ago served in Starmer’s govt.
Having contested and misplaced the seat of Manchester Withington within the 2010 normal election, Powell labored for Ed Miliband as Labour went into opposition, serving to him identify himself as birthday party chief.
A byelection within the Manchester Central constituency noticed Powell decided on after which elected for Labour in 2012, the place she moved into shadow ministerial and shadow cupboard roles. Powell left the shadow cupboard in 2016, as Jeremy Corbyn’s management got here below drive from the parliamentary Labour birthday party. She returned to frontbench Labour politics after Starmer turned into chief in 2020.
According to her occupation to this point, Powell is regularly characterized as being at the “soft left” of Labour – a label that may be used to explain many Labour birthday party individuals, however which additionally obscures a lot selection, and other ideological views. The “soft left” Powell is nearer to the centre of that amorphous political grouping.
In opting for the candidate he didn’t favour, individuals are sending the high minister a message that they, and plenty of of the ones engaged with the birthday party via business unions, aren’t feeling motivated by means of the federal government’s efficiency – to mention the least.
The deputy chief can play crucial function throughout the parliamentary Labour birthday party. They have got a seat at the birthday party’s Nationwide Govt Committee and are regularly concerned within the birthday party’s marketing campaign equipment. They are able to act as a sounding board for MPs in need of to specific perspectives about political technique, coverage course and legislative industry.
Powell, who served as chief of the Area of Commons in Starmer’s cupboard, already has enjoy of this type of function. Her new function is concurrently extra formal and casual than her earlier activity.
Because the elected deputy chief, Powell obviously has a sound function in discussing Labour’s ups and downs, privately and publicly. However from a governing viewpoint, the brand new deputy chief is out of doors of the cupboard and formal govt decision-making – a minimum of for now. This generally is a recipe for additional instability – and that was once the argument towards Powell’s candidacy all through the competition.
That being stated, Powell is skilled and has proven loyalty to the birthday party. Because the outdated adage is going, divided events don’t win elections, and Powell won’t wish to make issues worse for Labour.
What subsequent?
Labour is within the doldrums. Shedding the Caerphilly Senedd by-election was once an indication that subsequent 12 months’s elections (which come with elections to the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, in addition to elections in England) is also very dangerous for Labour – which means Starmer will are available for critical complaint.
He had already confronted hypothesis about his place previous within the autumn, together with Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s positioning previous to and all through the birthday party convention season. This demonstrated the unease felt after Labour’s first 12 months.
Powell was once proper to disregard the narrative connecting her candidacy to Burnham. The brand new deputy chief will as a substitute be any individual listened to in any research of Starmer’s management, in particular after the elections in 2026.
One giant factor has now not modified: Labour’s problem governing, stemming from Starmer’s wary and ideologically complicated management. The following giant political problem to stand is the finances, because of be delivered by means of Rachel Reeves on November 26.
The chancellor is in a hard place, a minimum of partially as a result of Labour painted itself right into a nook on tax coverage ahead of the 2024 normal election.
Governing in those tumultuous occasions was once at all times going to be tricky for Labour – however the management’s technique has definitely made it tougher. This deputy management election is also appeared again upon as an indication that the Labour birthday party as an entire began to reconsider its way.
