If you blinked you may have missed it. Labour has a new deputy leader, Lucy Powell, who won the contest to replace Angela Rayner.
The position of deputy comes down to a vote of party members and affiliated supporters, and this contest was seen as an opportunity to give Keir Starmer’s leadership the thumbs up or thumbs down.
Members have gone for the latter, selecting Powell over Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who was the Number 10 favourite for the role. In the end, Powell won 54% of the votes to Phillipson’s 46%.
Phillipson is popular in the party, and appears to have faced down grumbles from private schools about Labour’s VAT reforms. But polling and party mood had suggested Powell would win, even though Starmer had sacked her from his cabinet in September. This is proof both that politics is an unpredictable ride and that Labour’s internal politics is not currently blissful.
And although this was the first time since 2007 that Labour has held a contest for deputy leader while in office, turnout was just 16.6%.
Who is Lucy Powell?
Powell is no stranger to Labour leadership teams and of course only very recently served in Starmer’s government.
Having contested and lost the seat of Manchester Withington in the 2010 general election, Powell worked for Ed Miliband as Labour went into opposition, helping him establish himself as party leader.
A byelection in the Manchester Central constituency saw Powell selected and then elected for Labour in 2012, where she moved into shadow ministerial and shadow cabinet roles. Powell left the shadow cabinet in 2016, as Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership came under pressure from the parliamentary Labour party. She returned to frontbench Labour politics after Starmer became leader in 2020.
Based on her career so far, Powell is often characterised as being on the “soft left” of Labour – a label that could be used to describe many Labour party members, but which also obscures much variety, and different ideological perspectives. The “soft left” Powell is closer to the centre of that amorphous political grouping.
In choosing the candidate he did not favour, members are sending the prime minister a message that they, and many of those engaged with the party through trade unions, are not feeling motivated by the government’s performance – to say the least.
The deputy leader can play an important role within the parliamentary Labour party. They have a seat on the party’s National Executive Committee and are often involved in the party’s campaign machinery. They can act as a sounding board for MPs wanting to express views about political strategy, policy direction and legislative business.
Powell, who served as leader of the House of Commons in Starmer’s cabinet, already has experience of this kind of role. Her new role is simultaneously more formal and informal than her previous job.
As the elected deputy leader, Powell clearly has a legitimate role in discussing Labour’s ups and downs, privately and publicly. But from a governing perspective, the new deputy leader is outside of the cabinet and formal government decision-making – at least for now. This could be a recipe for further instability – and that was the argument against Powell’s candidacy during the contest.
That being said, Powell is experienced and has shown loyalty to the party. As the old adage goes, divided parties don’t win elections, and Powell will not want to make things worse for Labour.
What next?
Labour is in the doldrums. Losing the Caerphilly Senedd by-election was a sign that next year’s elections (which include elections to the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, as well as elections in England) may be very bad for Labour – meaning Starmer will come in for serious criticism.
Read more: Plaid Cymru's staggeringly large victory in Caerphilly is a warning to both Labour and Reform
He had already faced speculation about his position earlier in the autumn, including Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s positioning prior to and during the party conference season. This demonstrated the unease felt after Labour’s first year.
Powell was right to dismiss the narrative connecting her candidacy to Burnham. The new deputy leader will instead be someone listened to in any analysis of Starmer’s leadership, particularly after the elections in 2026.
One big thing has not changed: Labour’s difficulty governing, stemming from Starmer’s cautious and ideologically confusing leadership. The next big political challenge to face is the budget, due to be delivered by Rachel Reeves on November 26.
The chancellor is in a difficult position, at least in part because Labour painted itself into a corner on tax policy before the 2024 general election.
Governing in these tumultuous times was always going to be difficult for Labour – but the leadership’s strategy has undoubtedly made it harder. This deputy leadership election may be looked back upon as a sign that the Labour party as a whole started to rethink its approach.
Karl Pike has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. He is a member of the Labour Party and before becoming an academic was a political advisor for the Labour Party.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
