Speculation over Sir Keir Starmer‘s political future intensified yesterday after a Labour MP he sacked from the Cabinet won the race to become his new deputy – and immediately criticised his performance as Prime Minister.
Lucy Powell beat Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson – the Starmerite candidate – by a margin of 54 per cent to 46 per cent, in what had been billed as a referendum on Sir Keir’s leadership.
In her victory speech, Ms Powell, 51, took direct aim at the Prime Minister, implying that he had provided only insipid leadership.
‘People feel that this Government is not being bold enough in delivering the kind of change we promised,’ she said, adding that she thought the party had let Nigel Farage ‘and his ilk’ run away with the political agenda.
Ms Powell also warned that ‘division and hate are on the rise’, and said the ‘desire for change’ among voters was ‘palpable’.
The election, which was triggered by Angela Rayner‘s resignation over the underpayment of stamp duty on her seaside home, means the Prime Minister will have as his deputy a close ally of Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who is the favourite to succeed Sir Keir if he is ousted by increasingly restless Labour MPs.
It also exposes his apparent lack of control over the internal party machinery, and caps another disastrous week for the Prime Minister, during which the grooming gangs inquiry was mired in chaos, a migrant sex offender was mistakenly released from prison and Labour was beaten into third in a Senedd by-election in Caerphilly, an area the party had held for a century.
The Prime Minister said he accepted the party had suffered a ‘bad result’ in Wales, describing it as 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’.
Lucy Powell (left) hugs Keir Starmer (right) after she is made the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
Ms Powell, the former Commons Leader, was the only Cabinet member to be sacked from the Government in Sir Keir’s reshuffle last month, amid strongly denied claims she was involved with a Commons rebellion over attempted welfare cuts by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Sir Keir responded to her victory through gritted teeth, calling her a ‘proud defender’ of Labour values and saying: ‘I know Lucy will be an incredible deputy leader and help our party be election-ready’.
Ms Powell was elected by the party membership, and as a backbench MP will have the freedom to continue to criticise the Government.
Her election will increase the pressure on Sir Keir to push the party towards the Left: during the campaign she called for an end of the two-child benefit limit, despite the intense pressure on Ms Reeves to cut public spending.
Ms Phillipson had pitched herself as the ‘unity candidate’, warning that voting for her opponent would result in ‘internal debate and divisions that leads us back to opposition’.
Ms Powell was backed by the Burnham-linked ‘soft Left’ campaign group Mainstream and endorsed by Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, who has grown increasingly critical of No 10’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s long-time ally, who is regarded as a puppet of the Blairites by the Left.
During her speech, Ms Powell said Ms Rayner had ‘done so much for this party and for this country, and I know she will do a lot more in the future as well’.
She said she would ‘help Keir and our Government to succeed’ but said the party ‘must change how we are doing things to turn things around’.
Powell beat Bridget Phillipson (centre) by a margin of 54 per cent to 46 per cent
Singling out Reform UK, she said Labour should ‘wrestle back the political megaphone and set the agenda more strongly, because let’s be honest we’ve let [Nigel] Farage and his ilk run away with it’.
In response, Luke Hurst, national co-ordinator of Mainstream, said: ‘Only a deep and fundamental reset can stop Labour from driving off an electoral cliff.
‘The election of a deputy leader concerned to bridge the gap between the leadership and the grassroots is a welcome step towards correcting course.’ Neal Lawson, of the centre-Left Compass group, said: ‘Labour members, like the public, want big policy changes such as public ownership of water, wealth taxes and proportional representation.
‘But unless and until Labour instigates a major reset along these lines, then not even a change of some key people at the top of the party will save it.’
Firms: Angela’s laws will drag us back to 70s chaos
By Glen Owen and Gabriel Millard-Clothier
While Lucy Powell celebrates her victory in Labour’s deputy leadership election, her predecessor is casting a long shadow over struggling British businesses.
Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill, which contains a battery of new crippling industrial laws, will be debated in the House of Lords this week – with the Tories warning that unless it is heavily amended it will take Britain back to the pre-Thatcher era of endless, nationwide strikes.
Critics warn that Ms Rayner’s union-pleasing legislation will stifle the economy by making it more onerous to employ workers, boosting redundancy rights and making it far easier to trigger industrial action. Writing in today’s The Mail on Sunday, below, Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said that the Bill had united businesses in fear and would drive wealth creators overseas.
He writes: ‘Britain’s jobs market is already teetering, but this Bill will kneecap it for good’.
Ms Rayner, who last week delivered her delayed Commons resignation statement after the furore over her underpayment of stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside home, is not thought to have abandoned her leadership ambitions.
When Health Secretary Wes Streeting paid tribute to her at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool last month – saying ‘We need her back’ – he was greeted by a roar of approval from delegates.
Ms Rayner’s Bill has helped her to boost her credentials with the unions, who have donated £39 million to the party since Sir Keir Starmer became leader.
The most recent consultation on the Bill, the ‘Make work pay’ paper published last week, makes clear that the unions will have automatic access to almost all businesses, with only limited powers for companies to fight back – and £150,000 fines for breaches of the complex new rules.
Other proposals, such as so-called ‘day-one rights’ and an increase in paid time off for union work, have caused alarm among businesses. The Confederation of British Industry says it will have ‘consequences for growth, jobs and investment.’
Meanwhile, the Federation of Small Business (FSB) says the number of small businesses planning to let go of staff has doubled to a third because of the increase in employment costs.
The FSB reports that more than half of small employers say employment costs are the greatest barrier to growth and 67 per cent will stop hiring because of the Bill.
