Bridget Phillipson v Lucy Powell | UK News

Of the 18 politicians to have been Labour’s deputy leader, one has a dim view of the job.

“Really ghastly,” says Dame Margaret Beckett, who was number two under John Smith in the 1990s. She reckons it was a thankless task – important, but frankly, a bit dull.

Well, it’s not boring right now. Labour is in a mess, and the party has to choose a new deputy who might be part of Sir Keir Starmer’s salvation or, if it goes wrong, make a bad situation even worse.

So what’s the job, who wants it, and what might happen next?

“It’s a bit of a funny, vague role,” one party insider says.

There isn’t a precise job description. Technically, the deputy leader has a seat on Labour’s obscure but incredibly powerful National Executive Committee.

They attend what’s known as political cabinet, not the weekly meeting of ministers, but the less frequent get together of the prime minister’s top team where the civil servants are booted out of the room, and the party people come in.

The deputy also attends the weekly party parliamentary meeting, along with the prime minister, some elected backbenchers and the leader of the House.

The deputy leader is not automatically the deputy prime minister – the official government understudy – and won’t be this time. That job was given to David Lammy when he was moved sideways from being foreign secretary.

Another source says the deputy is the “campaigner in chief” – it’s a huge opportunity, but also, with Labour facing a very tricky set of elections in May, it’s a tough prospect.

Leaders cannot just tell their number two to pipe down, because they are voted in by party members.

That quandary is at the root of the contest this time round.

The two candidates, on paper, have a lot in common. Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson are both straight talking politicians from the north of England.

Neither are from the strident far left of the Labour movement, nor ardent members of the New Labour fan tribe. Although, as a party source suggests, Powell has played it “one step to the left of Bridget” through the last few weeks.

They have both held senior positions and are well known in the party. Among the public there’s not much in it either.

One recent survey by YouGov suggested 31% of people have heard of Phillipson, while 36% said they knew of Powell.

Both are far less well known than the woman they seek to replace, Angela Rayner (84%) who resigned after failing to pay enough tax on her £800,000 flat in Hove, East Sussex, breaching the ministerial code.

What’s the campaign really about, then?

Well the big difference is that Phillipson is in Starmer’s cabinet – and Powell was sacked from it a few weeks ago (she claims Starmer gave her no reason why other than to “make way” for someone else).

Powell has made clear during the campaign that she will speak her mind when things are going wrong, arguing that the government needs a “course correction” to avoid more political mistakes like the handling of winter fuel allowance.

Her backers argue the party will be stronger if it is brave enough to open up debate to more people because, frankly, the clique around Starmer – as many within the party see it – has made plenty of mistakes.

One source said members had found it “offensive” to be told by senior figures in the party that “only someone on the prime minister’s good behaviour list” should be considered for the job. The source said the deputy should be the “yin to the yang” of No 10.

In this best-case scenario, the deputy has their finger firmly on the pulse of the party – so if ministers decide on a plan that members and MPs are likely to dislike, the deputy can put the brakes on. If their opinion is taken into consideration, that is.

Phillipson’s team argue a big voice like this outside the cabinet would create a rival power base that could destabilise what is an already shaky political operation.

Picture the scene – the government decides it really has to crack on with some welfare cuts after all and ministers announce them. The deputy gives an interview and sounds not entirely convinced. MPs then have licence to protest and complain.

Downing Street’s plans look wobbly, and with several of the prime minister’s big ideas having already been ditched, you know what happens next.

Phillipson’s pitch is that she would argue for members’ desires, particularly to help kids who grow up in poverty, and make that case firmly but quietly on the inside, without becoming a lightening rod for dissent.

And then on the outside, her team say she would take on more of the job of persuading the public the government is getting things done.

Phillipson will on Sunday promise members more power over decision making, pledging that rather than just talking to their own MP at constituency meetings, she would formally ask members and unions for their views every three months – whether using a new app or through the existing party website.

She’s also vowing that ministers would hold direct meetings with party members online, and to change the rules around how the party makes policy.

For example, when Ed Miliband was leader, Labour opened up the National Policy Forum (NPF) – the party’s official machine for making plans – to outside organisations. Ever since, charities, campaign groups and even big companies like Primark and Vodafone have been able to submit their ideas to it.

I’m told Phillipson is pledging to change the rules so that only members or organisations with official links to the party could put forward their ideas to the NPF for official consideration.

In practical terms, Labour leaders make the final decisions, but how the party is structured matters a lot too – particularly to members.

So who is on course to win?

Shock horror in a political campaign, you’ll be amazed that the two women have both been caricatured.

Powell is not a wild rebel intent on causing havoc (she was in the cabinet until a few weeks ago), nor is Phillipson an automaton trapped in the limits of agreed government lines (it’s not so long ago she was the target of negative briefings herself).

You’ll be staggered too, not really, to learn there’s been a bit of backchat between the two sides: Phillipson’s allies accusing Powell of not being willing to take part in TV hustings; Powell’s allies saying that’s nonsense. Phillipson claiming Powell would be “divisive”; Powell hitting back on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last weekend to say that is “ridiculous”.

Both have been campaigning across the country, taking part in at least 20 in-person and online events with members.

Phillipson has more MPs, and more of the unions on her side. Powell has more constituency party backing, and more from the other affiliated organisations like the Society of Labour Lawyers.

The decision for the party is in part whether it wants a politician who will represent members’ voices from outside the top echelons of government, or perhaps more discreetly, from the inside.

Whoever wins, relationships and personalities will shape what happens. Beyond the official duties, the role of deputy leader has been done in very different ways – by very different characters – in recent history.

A steady, loyal hand to help out a busy leader, shaking hands and scoffing sandwiches at party events the prime minister simply doesn’t have the time to attend, and doing vital campaign grunt work, as Dame Margaret suggests.

Or a pressure valve for a leader that sometimes winds up the rank and file. Think of John Prescott’s booming tones that connected with some voters and party members who didn’t much like Tony Blair’s silken schmooze.

Or a deputy who grapples to represent the parliamentary party in bitter opposition to the wilder elements of the leader’s tribe. Think of the battles between Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn during the party’s most recent civil war.

This time round, without radical differences between the two candidates, the contest is a chance for members to give a verdict on the leadership, and vent frustration.

The truth is that many members, just like Labour MPs, are disgruntled and disappointed by some of the decisions Starmer and his team have made. Some are dismayed by the party’s dismal position in the polls, not even 18 months since an enormous election victory.

That’s why, as things stand, most Labour sources and the limited polling available put Powell as the favourite to win the job. Even a member of the cabinet said to me earlier this week, “we all know it’s going to be Lucy”.

We all know by now that politics has an endless capacity to surprise, and the votes haven’t all been cast. Phillipson will join us in the studio tomorrow where she’ll argue her case, after Powell appeared last week.

But if party members do express their frustration by electing Powell, the optics for Starmer would be awkward. One source suggested: “For Lucy to get sacked then five weeks later, show to be the party’s favourite slam-dunk candidate, feeds into the narrative of Keir’s non-Midas touch – oops.”

It may not be “ghastly”, but it does seem a decision that Labour members are ready to take.

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