🔗 Share this article

Lucy Powell has come out on top in the Labour deputy leadership election, overcoming her opponent Bridget Phillipson.

Vote Breakdown and Outcome

Formerly the Commons leader before being replaced in a recent reorganization, was largely viewed as the frontrunner during the race. She secured 87,407 votes, accounting for 54% of the submitted ballots, whereas Phillipson got 73,536. Voter participation stood at 16.6%.

The result was announced on Saturday following a vote that many saw as a referendum for party supporters on Labour's trajectory under its current leadership. Phillipson, the education secretary, was perceived as the favored candidate of Downing Street.

Shared Policy Stances

Both contenders pushed for the abolition of the benefit limit for two children, a policy that sparked a insurgency in parliament soon after Labour assumed office and is largely disliked among the party base.

Triumphant Remarks from Powell

In her victory speech given before the party leader and the home secretary, Powell hinted at failings by the administration and remarked that Labour had been too passive against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

She stated, “Victory won't come by competing with Reform.”

She urged the leadership to pay attention to members and MPs, several of whom have been disciplined since the party entered government for voting against on issues such as social security costs and the two-child benefit cap.

“Party members and representatives are not a weakness, they’re our primary resource, effecting transformation on the ground,” Powell said. “Solidarity and allegiance stem from common aims, not from command-and-control. Arguing, attending and comprehending is not rebellion. It’s our advantage.”

She stated further: “We must provide hope, to provide the big transformation the country is yearning for. We should communicate a stronger impression of our purpose, whose side we’re on, and of our ideals and tenets. That’s the feedback I got loudly and clearly throughout the land in recent weeks.”

She further noted: “Although we're doing much good … the public believes that this government is failing to be daring in executing the sort of reform we vowed. I'll be a champion for our Labour values and boldness in each endeavor.

“It starts with us wrestling back the public discourse and setting the agenda more forcefully. Because in truth, we’ve let Farage and his ilk to control it.”

She remarked: “Discord and animosity are increasing, discontent and disillusionment widespread, the demand for reform eager and tangible. The public is looking in other places for solutions, and we as the Labour party, as the governing force, have to advance and tackle this.

“We have this single opportunity to prove that forward-thinking, centrist policies truly can improve living conditions for the better.”

Leader's Remarks and Labour's Struggles

The party leader greeted Powell’s success, and acknowledged the difficulties confronting Labour, a day after the party lost a seat in the Welsh parliament to a rival party.

He referred to a statement made by a Conservative MP who recently asserted she believed “a large number of people” living legally in the UK should have their right to stay cancelled and “go home” to produce a more “culturally coherent group of people”.

The leader remarked it showed that the Conservatives and Reform wanted to take Britain to a “very dark place”.

“Our responsibility, every one of us in this party, is to rally every single person in this country who is opposed to that approach, and to beat it, for good.

“This week we received another signal of just how pressing that mission is. A bad outcome in Wales. I admit that, but it is a cue that people need to look out their window and see change and renewal in their locality, prospects for the young, revitalized state services, the addressed living costs.”

Election Context and Turnout

The conclusion was closer than expected; a recent opinion survey had forecast Powell would receive 58% of ballots cast. The participation rate of 16.6% was markedly lower than the last deputy leadership election in 2020, which had 58.8%.

Members and union affiliates constituted the 970,642 people qualified to participate.

The race grew more fractious over the last six weeks. Recently, Powell was called “the Momentum candidate” and Phillipson gave an interview saying her opponent would cost the party the election.

The election was called after the previous deputy leader resigned last month when she was discovered to have paid too little stamp duty on a property purchase.

Remarks in parliament this week – the first time she had done so since resigning following a report by the prime minister’s ethics adviser – the former deputy leader told MPs she would pay “any taxes owed”.

Differing from her predecessor, Powell will not assume the role of deputy prime minister, with the office having earlier bestowed to another senior figure.

Powell is regarded as being closely linked with the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who was accused of starting a run for the top job in all but name before the party’s recent conference.

During the campaign, Powell frequently mentioned “errors” made by the party on issues such as the winter fuel allowance.