Lucy Powell tells Labour it can’t sugarcoat how badly things are going

The Labour deputy leadership contender Lucy Powell has told party members that she will not “sugarcoat” how badly the party is doing, promising to challenge Downing Street’s “groupthink” as voting begins.

Ballots open on Wednesday for members and affiliates in the race between Powell and the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, with polls for LabourList suggesting Powell is the clear frontrunner.

Phillipson, who has been broadly viewed as No 10’s preferred candidate, has won the most significant endorsements from unions, including Unison and GMB.

Powell, who was sacked from the shadow cabinet at the last reshuffle, is expected to pick up votes from members who want to see a progressive turn from Keir Starmer’s government.

The polling for LabourList undertaken by Survation found that 57% of members backed Powell, compared with 26% for Phillipson. About one in five said they were still undecided.

At a rally in east London, Powell said she would be a full-time deputy and would push for a change of approach. “We must be more authentic, telling a stronger story about the purpose of the Labour government and whose side we’re on,” she said.

“I’m proud of Labour’s achievements, but we need to acknowledge that mistakes have been made. We can’t sugarcoat the fact that things aren’t going well. We have ceded the political megaphone to our opponents instead of setting the agenda ourselves. I want to help Labour wrest it back.”

Powell told the rally that would require “changes to the way we operate”, a hint at the strategy run by No 10 to suspend or isolate critical voices.

“When we rely on a narrower and narrower set of voices, groupthink sets in, and that’s when mistakes and wrong turns happen. I want to change this. Unity of purpose comes not from command and control, but by taking people with us and winning the argument,” she said.

Powell wanted first and foremost to be a campaigner in the role, she said, but said Labour was losing support on both its right and left flanks, to Reform UK and to the Greens and Liberal Democrats.

“We’re in the fight of our lives, and the future of our democracy is on the line,” she said. “Politics has become more fractured and divided. We’re losing support to both sides. Trying to out-Reform Reform doesn’t work.

“I’ll get up every day and focus full-time on rebuilding a broad progressive coalition, to put our values into action, reunite the country, standing up for what we believe in, power with a purpose.”

Phillipson, meanwhile, spoke about her journey “from a council street in the north east, growing up in poverty, to the cabinet”, adding: “That’s why in government I’ve focused on delivering free breakfast clubs, securing free school meals for half a million more children and reviving sure start for a new generation of children.

“Now I want a mandate to do more and as deputy leader tackling child poverty will be my number one priority, alongside delivering our new deal for working people in full, no ifs, no buts,” she said.

“Like Angela Rayner and John Prescott, I’m going to give members a voice from the cabinet table, not throw rocks from the outside. As deputy leader I want to unite our party, deliver change for working people and beat Reform, and deliver the second Labour term our children deserve.”

Ballots for all members and affiliated supporters will open on Wednesday and close on Thursday 23 October at noon, with results declared on Saturday 25 October.