🔗 Share this article

Lucy Powell has triumphed in the contest for Labour's deputy leader, overcoming her rival Bridget Phillipson.

Ballot Details and Winner

Ex-Commons leader until a reshuffle in a early autumn reorganization, was largely viewed as the frontrunner across the contest. She obtained 87,407 votes, making up 54% of the total ballots, whereas Phillipson got 73,536. Turnout was recorded at 16.6%.

The decision was announced on Saturday after balloting that many regarded as a measure for party adherents on Labour's direction under its current leadership. Phillipson, the education secretary, was viewed as the top pick of government circles.

Agreed-Upon Policies

Each candidate advocated for the abolition of the two-child benefit cap, a policy that sparked a revolt among MPs shortly after Labour took power and is largely disliked among the party base.

Powell's Victory Address

In her winning remarks spoken in front of the party leader and the home secretary, Powell alluded to errors from the government and stated that Labour had not been assertive enough against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

She asserted, “We won't win by competing with Reform.”

She urged the leadership to heed party members and elected representatives, a number of whom have had the whip withdrawn since the party gained power for defying the party on issues such as social security costs and the two-child benefit cap.

“Our members and elected representatives are not a weakness, they’re our greatest strength, effecting transformation on the ground,” Powell remarked. “Solidarity and allegiance arise from collective purpose, not from top-down directives. Discussing, heeding and understanding is not disloyalty. It’s our strength.”

She stated further: “We have to offer optimism, to bring about the significant shift the country is demanding. We should communicate a stronger impression of our objective, who we represent, and of our ideals and tenets. That’s the message I received loudly and clearly across the nation during the last several weeks.”

She also mentioned: “While we’re accomplishing many positive things … the public believes that this government is lacking courage in implementing the sort of reform we pledged. I'll be a champion for our party ideals and daring in everything we do.

“It commences with us reclaiming the public discourse and setting the agenda more assertively. Because to be frank, we’ve permitted Farage and his ilk to run away with it.”

She remarked: “Division and hate are increasing, unrest and disappointment widespread, the desire for change impatient and palpable. People are searching in other places for responses, and we as the Labour party, as the ruling party, have to advance and tackle this.

“We have this major moment to show that reformist, popular governance truly can change people’s lives for the better.”

Leadership Response and Party Challenges

The party leader welcomed Powell’s success, and recognized the hurdles confronting Labour, a day after the party was defeated in the Welsh parliament to a rival party.

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

The leader said it showed that the Conservatives and Reform sought to bring Britain to a “very dark place”.

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

“This week we received another signal of just how crucial that mission is. A poor result in Wales. I acknowledge that, but it is a reminder that people need to observe their surroundings and see change and renewal in their neighborhood, prospects for the young, revitalized state services, the addressed living costs.”

Contest Background and Participation

The outcome was closer than expected; a survey earlier this week had indicated Powell would obtain 58% of ballots cast. The participation rate of 16.6% was markedly lower than the previous deputy leadership election in 2020, which recorded 58.8%.

Grassroots and labor groups comprised the 970,642 people eligible to vote.

The contest grew progressively hostile over the past month and a half. Recently, Powell was labeled “the Momentum candidate” and Phillipson gave an interview saying her rival would lose the election for Labour.

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

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

In contrast to her predecessor, Powell will not become deputy prime minister, with the position having already been given to another senior figure.

Powell is viewed as being strongly associated with the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who was accused of initiating a campaign for leader in all but name before the party’s last gathering.

During the campaign, Powell often referenced “mistakes” made by the party on issues such as the winter fuel allowance.