Phillipson announces bid for Labour deputy leadership

5 godzin temu

Bridget Phillipson (Labour) has announced her candidacy for Labour's deputy leadership, positioning herself as the candidate to unite the party and take on Reform UK. The Education Secretary made her bid public on Tuesday morning, becoming the second MP to enter the race following Angela Rayner's (Labour) resignation last week over her tax affairs.

Phillipson described herself as "a proud working-class woman from the North East" who had risen from "a single-parent family on a tough council street" to the Cabinet table. She pledged to bring the same determination she had shown in taking on "powerful vested interests in the education sector" to future political battles, stating she had "never taken a backwards step".

Fighting Reform threat

The Education Secretary directly addressed the challenge posed by Nigel Farage's party with stark language. She said: "Because make no mistake: we are in a fight. We all know the dangers Reform poses to our country."

Phillipson claimed she had already proven she could deliver results against Reform. "But not only am I ready for it: I've proven we can do it. I've shown we can beat Farage in the North East while staying true to the Labour Party's values of equality, fairness and social justice," she said.

Contest timeline draws criticism

The deputy leadership contest has faced accusations of being orchestrated as a "stitch-up" due to its compressed nomination period. Candidates have until 5pm on Thursday to secure backing from 80 MPs to reach the next round, with nominations having opened only on Tuesday.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour), who announced her candidacy on Monday evening, described the timeline as "unfair". Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, she argued that Labour needed a debate about "what's gone wrong" in its first year in power and warned the party would struggle to "attract or even to retain" voters without a change in direction.

Geographic preferences emerge

Health Secretary Wes Streeting (Labour) has indicated strong preference for the next deputy leader to be a woman from outside London. Speaking to Times Radio, he said he would "certainly prefer" the next deputy leader to be a woman.

Streeting added: "Without being disrespectful to some brilliant women in London who are standing, like Emily Thornberry, who I've got lots of respect for, I can well understand why lots of my colleagues are saying we should have a deputy leader from outside London to broaden perspectives." This could effectively rule out both Ribeiro-Addy and Dame Emily Thornberry (Labour), chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who has indicated she is considering a bid.

Current field and support

Few parliamentarians have publicly backed any candidate yet, though Ribeiro-Addy has received support from the party's left wing, including Richard Burgon (Labour), chairman of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs. Ribeiro-Addy emphasised the importance of internal debate, arguing: "The Labour Party is a broad church and, actually, when we are able to have debates, when we are able to bring forward different views, it actually makes us better."

Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.

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