Rebecca Long Bailey might not yet be a household name but that is about to change.
The Salford and Eccles MP has long been touted as a possible successor to Jeremy Corbyn, marking her out as the frontrunner in the minds of many before she even entered the leadership race.
Ms Long Bailey is relatively new to Labour’s ranks, only becoming an MP in 2015. However the 40-year-old’s rise from the backbenches to the top of the party has been swift.
As one of the 35 MPs who nominated Corbyn for the leadership in 2015, Long Bailey was rewarded with a role on the front bench as shadow Treasury minister, before being promoted to shadow business secretary in 2017 and appointed as one of the shadow cabinet representatives on Labour’s ruling body.
Ms Long Bailey became increasingly prominent during the last parliament, when she received the patronage of John McDonnell, the influential shadow chancellor, and helped to create Labour’s Green New Deal, which she said was “tragically undersold” by party strategists at the election.
As well as representing Labour in Brexit talks with the government, she also deputised for Mr Corbyn at prime minister’s questions and during a televised election debate, underscoring her position as the heir apparent.
Ms Long Bailey kept her counsel after the party’s disastrous election defeat, only confirming her candidacy on 6 January with an article in the left-wing magazine Tribune, where she vowed to build a “winning vision of a socialist future” and to “go to war with the political establishment”.
If successful, Ms Long Bailey would be the first female Labour leader. She has also backed her flatmate Angela Rayner for the deputy role, who is widely expected to romp to victory in the race to succeed Tom Watson.
Born in Old Trafford to Irish parents, Ms Long Bailey says she was born to the roar of football fans at the Manchester United ground and her early life has clearly shaped her politics.
She has often spoken of her working-class childhood and the impact of watching her father, a trade union rep at the docks in Salford, go through rounds of redundancies.
The teenage Ms Long Bailey worked in a pawn shop, in call centres, in a furniture factor and as a postwoman before becoming a successful solicitor.
She has repeatedly rejected attempts to badge her as “continuity Corbyn” but it is clear that she remains loyal to the former leader and his policy agenda.
The mother-of-one, who describes herself as a socialist in her Twitter biography, said Labour needed a leader who is totally committed to left-wing policies and “has the political backbone to defend them”.
As one of the more Eurosceptic shadow cabinet members, who represents a Leave-voting seat, Ms Long Bailey has been able to position herself as a tonic to the more pro-EU, London-based candidates such as Emily Thornberry and Sir Keir Starmer.
Her northern, working class background could also be an asset in Labour’s uphill battle to win back lost voters in its traditional heartlands.
Ms Long Bailey is loyal to trade unions and particularly close to the influential union Unite, which supported her attempt to become an MP in 2015 and could lend her financial support.
With party chairman Ian Lavery announcing he will not stand and Ms Rayner going for the deputy job, the way has been cleared for Long Bailey to position herself as the left-wing candidate for the top job.
