🔗 Share this article

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

Election Results and Figures

Powell, previously the Commons leader until her removal in a recent reshuffle, was widely considered the leading candidate across the campaign. She garnered 87,407 votes, making up 54% of the submitted ballots, while Phillipson got 73,536. Turnout was recorded at 16.6%.

The decision was revealed on Saturday after balloting that many interpreted as a indicator for party adherents on Labour's direction under its current leadership. Phillipson, the education secretary, was considered the top pick of Downing Street.

Shared Policy Stances

Both contenders called for the abolition of the cap on benefits for third children, a policy that caused a revolt among MPs shortly after Labour came into government and is largely disliked among the party base.

Winning Speech by Powell

During her victory speech given before the party leader and the home secretary, Powell suggested errors from the government and commented that Labour had lacked strength against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

She asserted, “Victory won't come by trying to out-Reform Reform.”

She urged the leadership to pay attention to the grassroots and parliamentarians, many of whom have lost party support since the party entered government for defying the party on issues such as benefit outlays and the two-child benefit cap.

“Our grassroots and MPs are not a flaw, they’re our greatest strength, delivering change on the ground,” Powell remarked. “Solidarity and allegiance arise from shared goals, not from top-down directives. Debating, listening and hearing is not disloyalty. It’s our strength.”

She continued: “We need to give hope, to provide the big transformation the country is demanding. We should communicate a more definite feeling of our purpose, who we represent, and of our ideals and tenets. That’s the message I received distinctly and unmistakably around the country over the past few weeks.”

She also mentioned: “Even as we achieve numerous benefits … the public believes that this government is failing to be daring in delivering the sort of reform we promised. I will advocate for our party ideals and boldness in everything we do.

“It begins with us wrestling back the political megaphone and establishing the focus more strongly. Because let’s be honest, we’ve let Farage and his allies to control it.”

She stated: “Division and hate are increasing, dissatisfaction and disenchantment commonplace, the yearning for transformation urgent and evident. The public is looking to other sources for responses, and we as the Labour party, as the governing force, have to advance and tackle this.

“We have this single opportunity to prove that reformist, popular governance truly can change people’s lives for the better.”

Leadership Response and Party Challenges

The party leader greeted Powell’s victory, and acknowledged the hurdles faced by Labour, a day after the party suffered a defeat in the Welsh parliament to a rival party.

He cited a statement 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 revoked and “go home” to establish a more “culturally coherent group of people”.

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

“Our duty, every one of us in this party, is to rally every single person in this country who is against that politics, and to defeat it, for good.

“This week we got another indication of just how urgent that mission is. A disappointing performance in Wales. I admit that, but it is a cue that people need to look out their window and witness transformation and revitalization in their community, chances for the next generation, public services rebuilt, the addressed living costs.”

Election Context and Turnout

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

Members and union affiliates made up the 970,642 people able to cast ballots.

The campaign grew progressively hostile over the recent weeks. Recently, Powell was described as “the Momentum candidate” and Phillipson made remarks saying her opponent would lose the election for Labour.

The ballot was triggered after the previous deputy leader resigned last month when she was determined to have underpaid stamp duty on a property purchase.

Speaking 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 office 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 alleged to have launching a leadership bid in all but name before the party’s recent conference.

Throughout the race, Powell repeatedly cited “errors” made by the party on issues such as the winter fuel allowance.