Lucy Powell wins Labour deputy leadership election

Lucy Powell has won Labour’s deputy leadership election, beating her rival Bridget Phillipson, as she said the party would not win by trying to “out-Reform Reform”.
Powell, who was the Commons leader until she was sacked in Keir Starmer’s reshuffle at the start of September, was seen as the favourite throughout the contest. She won 87,407 votes, 54% of those cast, while Phillipson received 73,536. Turnout of eligible voters was 16.6%.
The result was announced on Saturday morning after a vote that was widely seen as a referendum for Labour members on the direction of the party under Starmer. Phillipson, the education secretary, was seen as Downing Street’s preferred candidate.
Both candidates called for the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, a policy that caused a parliamentary rebellion within weeks of Labour taking office and is largely unpopular with members.
During her victory speech in front of Starmer and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, Powell hinted at failings by the government and said Labour had not been strong enough against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
She urged the leadership to listen to members and MPs, of whom several of the latter have had the whip withdrawn since the party came into power for rebelling over issues such as welfare spending and the two-child benefit cap.
“Our members and our elected representatives are not our weakness, they’re our key asset, delivering change on the ground,” Powell said. “Unity and loyalty comes from collective purpose, not from command-and-control. Debating, listening and hearing is not dissent. It’s our strength.”
She said: “We have to offer hope, to offer the big change the country’s crying out for. We must give a stronger sense of our purpose, whose side we’re on, and of our Labour values and beliefs. That’s what I’ve heard loudly and clearly around the country these last few weeks.”
She added: “Whilst we’re doing many good things … people feel that this government is not being bold enough in delivering the kind of change we promised. I’ll be a champion for our Labour values and boldness in everything we do.
“It starts with us wrestling back the political megaphone and setting the agenda more strongly. Because let’s be honest, we’ve let Farage and his ilk run away with it.”
She said: “Division and hate are on the rise, discontent and disillusionment widespread, the desire for change impatient and palpable. People are looking around, looking elsewhere for answers, and we as the Labour party, as the party of government, have to step forward and take this on.
“We have this one big chance to show that progressive, mainstream politics really can change people’s lives for the better.”
Starmer welcomed Powell’s victory, and acknowledged the difficulties faced by Labour, a day after the party lost a seat in the Welsh parliament to Plaid Cymru.
He referred to a pledge made by Conservative MP Katie Lam, who said last weekend she believed “a large number of people” living legally in the UK should have their right to stay revoked and “go home” to produce a more “culturally coherent group of people”.
Starmer said it showed the Conservatives and Reform wanted to take Britain to a “very dark place”.
“Our job, whoever we are in this party, is to unite every single person in this country who is opposed to that politics, and to defeat it, once and for all.
“This week we received another reminder of just how urgent that task is. A bad result in Wales. I accept that, but it is a reminder that people need to look out their window and see change and renewal in their community, opportunities for their children, public services rebuilt, the cost-of-living crisis tackled.”
The result was closer than expected; a Survation poll earlier this week suggested Powell would get 58% of ballots cast. The turnout of 16.6% was significantly lower than the last deputy leadership election in 2020 of 58.8%.
Members and union affiliates made up the 970,642 people eligible to vote.
The contest grew increasingly fractious over the last six weeks. Last weekend, Powell was described as “the Momentum candidate” and Phillipson gave an interview saying her rival would cost the party the election.
The vote was called after Angela Rayner resigned last month when she was found to have underpaid stamp duty on a house purchase in Brighton.
Speaking in the Commons this week – the first time she had done so since standing down in the wake of a report by the prime minister’s ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus – Rayner told MPs she would pay “any taxes owed”.
Unlike Rayner, Powell will not become deputy prime minister, with the position having already been given to David Lammy.
Powell is seen as being closely associated with the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who was accused of launching a leadership bid in all but name before the party’s conference last month.
During the campaign, Powell frequently referred to “mistakes” made by the party on issues such as the winter fuel allowance.