Lucy Powell has won Labour’s deputy leadership election after a campaign based on a call for the party to change course.
The election result could spell trouble for Sir Keir Starmer as Ms Powell will be free to speak out against his Government’s policies from the back benches rather than being bound by collective responsibility like her defeated deputy leadership rival, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
In a message to supporters ahead of the close of polls, Ms Powell said she wanted to ‘help Keir and our Government to succeed’ but added the party ‘must change how we are doing things to turn things around’.
Ms Powell received 87,407 votes from the Labour Party membership and affiliates.
Ms Phillipson received 73,536 votes.
The number of eligible voters was 970,642 and a total of 160,993 votes were cast, resulting in a turnout of 16.6%.
Ms Powell was first elected as the MP for Manchester Central in a by-election in 2012.
Her election as deputy leader marks the fourth time the Labour Party has elected a woman to this position, following Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman, and Angela Rayner.
Speaking after her victory, Ms Powell said: ‘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. He wants to blame immigration for all the country’s problems.
‘We reject that. Our diagnosis is different: that for too long, the country and the economy has worked in the interests of the few, not the many.’
The Manchester Central MP added: ‘We won’t win by trying to out-Reform Reform, but by building a broad progressive consensus.’
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Why was Lucy Powell sacked from Labour Party?
Ms Powell, the Manchester Central MP, was sacked from Sir Keir’s Cabinet in September and has indicated she will refuse a return to a government role so she can speak more openly about the direction of the party in office.
What is Angela Rayner doing now?
Angela Rayner stepped down from all of her government and party roles amid a row over her tax affairs last week.
However, she remains the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne and will continue to sit in Parliament on the Labour backbenches.
In her resignation letter, she wrote: ‘For me, being in office is a chance to change the lives of the people I grew up alongside. I will do whatever I can to continue doing so.’
Addressing Starmer, she added: ‘Thank you for your leadership and for your friendship. I will continue to serve you, our country and the party and movement I love in the weeks, months and years ahead.’
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